Who is Extinction Rebellion co-founder Dr Gail Bradbrook? A look at the activist’s family and net worth

The three demands of global environmental movement Extinction Rebellion are to decide together, act now and tell the truth, however the co-founder of the group has seemingly been caught out in being honest in her personal life as she has been labelled a ‘towering hypocrite’.

Dr Gail Bradbrook co-founded Extinction Rebellion (XR) five years ago in 2018 with Simon Bramwell and Roger Hallam to name a few, and has since been a part of movements such as a naked protest in Stroud and causing £27,500 of damage to the Department of Transport building in 2019 in London.

Despite her actions with XR to fight climate change and protect nature, the 50-year-old was held accountable for her shopping habits after being seen buying plastic packaged food in Waitrose this week that had ‘racked up more than 17,000 air miles’.

Before driving off in her diesel-fuelled car, which has previously thrown Bradbrook into hot water, she was snapped throwing the likes of Vietnamese tea and Chilean grapes into her trolley in Gloucestershire although XR insists on ‘every part of society [to] act now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions'.

Dr Bradbrook’s actions have been highlighted as a fifth of food-related greenhouse gas emissions boil down to products being flown from across the world.

As mentioned, this is not the first time Dr Bradbrook has received complaints as in 2021, her neighbours in Stroud voiced their annoyance with the XR co-founder’s ‘eyesore’ house and overgrown garden while a few years prior she was criticised for flying to Costa Rica for a health resort that racked up a carbon footprint of 2.6 tonnes.

Bradbrook’s hypocritical actions come not only ahead of Earth Day 2023 on 22 April where people will demonstrate support for environmental protection across the globe, but also as the eco-group are planning a protest in London from Friday to Monday. 

Recently, animal rights activists stormed the grounds of Aintree Racecourse amid the Grand National and Just Stop Oil led to a World Snooker Championship round being cancelled.

In light of this, PeopleWorld takes a look at Dr Gail Bradbrook:

Dr Gail Bradbrook was born in South Elmsall in West Yorkshire and celebrated her 50th birthday in 2022.

Born to a father who worked in a colliery in South Kirby, Dr Bradbrook went on to pursue a degree in molecular biophysics at the University of Manchester where she obtained a PhD and studied post-doctoral work in India and France.

Dr Bradbrook was interested in animal rights and environmental factors from a young age after joining the Green Party at 14-years-old.

Before co-found Extinction Rebellion in May 2018, Dr Bradbrook was a ‘director of strategy’ at Citizens Online, which helps internet access for disabled users, and worked with Transition Stroud.

In 2020, Dr Bradbrook was listed on BBC 4 Woman's Hour Power list and with an estimated net worth of $5 million, she lives in Stroud, Gloucestershire, where her ex-partner and XR co-founder Simon Bramwell also resides.

The molecular biophysicist has been married twice and has two sons, with Dr Bradbrook first tying the knot to British particle physicist Jeffrey Forshaw.