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Jane Hawking, former wife of Stephen Hawking, says she "would have thrown (herself) in the river", had she not met now-husband Jonathan Hellyer Jones.

Speaking after the release of The Theory of Everything, the film based on her memoirs, Jane said she had "no fight left" when her marriage to the physicist ended.

"When the rug was pulled from under my feet, I felt as if a great chasm was opening up, as my life had been dedicated to Stephen, his success and my children," she said.

Jane said with hindsight she would have "done things differently," and encouraged Stephen to "be more open about the way he felt."

"I encouraged him to adopt such an attitude of denial to the illness that he simply refused to talk about it, and that became more and more difficult," she said.

This clip is originally from Afternoon Edition on Thursday 12 February 2015.