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Glastonbury 2015: Stephen Hawking pulls out of festival due to 'personal reasons'

The physicist has reportedly cancelled his appearance due to ill health

Daisy Wyatt,Jamie Merrill
Sunday 28 June 2015 13:43 BST
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Stephen Hawking is reportedly taking steps to trademark his name
Stephen Hawking is reportedly taking steps to trademark his name (Getty)

Stephen Hawking has had to cancel his appearance at Glastonbury festival.

The renown physicist was due to give a talk on Friday 26 June at the Worthy Farm Kidz Field.

“For personal reasons Stephen Hawkins will not be able to visit Glastonbury this year,” said a spokesperson for Cambridge University.

Glastonbury officials had been coy about the exact timings of Hawking's talk and it has been widely speculated that he was likely to cancel, amid speculation over possible ill-health.

Hawking, who was recently portrayed by Eddie Redmayne in the Oscar-winning film The Theory of Everything, was due to "wow" children with his gravitational theories - but the exact content of his talk at the festival was unknown.

The 73-year-old has previously written children's books about physics, including George's Secret Key to the Universe and George and the Unbreakable code, which he co-wrote with his daughter Lucy Hawking.

Hawking was diagnosed with motor neuron disease at the age of 21 and was given just months to live. The physicist has lived with the condition for five decades, communicating with a single cheek muscle attached to a speech-generating device.

He sometimes finds it hards to breath and has to use a ventilator.

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