Jonathan Cainer

Early life

Cainer was born and grew up in Surbiton (then in Surrey), one of seven children of David who worked at Barclays Bank and Ruth who was a medical secretary and spiritual healer. Aged 13, he followed his mother to Leeds where he attended Allerton Grange School which he left at 15 without qualifications. He then worked as a petrol pump attendant, school nursery assistant and factory worker. He also played bass guitar in a band called Strange Cloud, attended rock festivals and helped to relaunch the 1960s underground newspaper International Times. He then managed a nightclub on the outskirts of Los Angeles.

Career

He was working as a session musician when an acquaintance read his birth chart to him. Amazed by how accurately it summed him up, Cainer went on to study with the Faculty of Astrological Studies. He was interested only in drawing up full horoscopes, based on people’s exact date, time and place of birth. Indeed, when first approached, back in 1984 to write a Sun sign forecast column, he turned down the offer, opting instead to write books designed to help students learn the language of planetary symbolism. Cainer also co-designed one of the first astrological computer programs. He also wrote a cookbook in 1985, The Junk Food Vegetarian.

In 1986, when Eddie Shah launched Today, Cainer was approached once more to write a daily Sun sign column. Assured that he would also have the chance to introduce his readers to the deeper side of his subject, Cainer took the post, and his column proved a great success. He left Today in January 1992 and joined the Daily Mail in December of the same year. His Times obituary said that he was "arguably the only hippy ever to write a leading column for the Daily Mail". Cainer disliked the editorial stances of the Daily Mail, he "never once agreed with an editorial they have published". Cainer was a philanthropist who supported the Steiner School in York, a school based on the. spiritual and philosophical principles of Rudolf Steiner. In January 2000, he moved from the Daily Mail to the Daily Express. The change was the subject of a contract dispute with the Mail, leading to the newspaper group's unsuccessful legal action that year. It was believed by their executives that Cainer's switch might lead to a loss of 4% of the Mail's circulation to the Express. After Richard Desmond became the proprietor of the Express titles, Cainer joined the Daily Mirror in March 2001. Promised a high-profile position on page 9 by Mirror editor Piers Morgan, Cainer's column was soon shifted to a more remote location in the paper. He returned to the Daily Mail in June 2004. Cainer's book, Cosmic Ordering, was published in 2006. He made frequent appearances as a pundit on British TV and radio stations, whenever astrology was in the news. At the Mail, he was the highest paid journalist in Great Britain.

Cainer had six children. In the 1990s his first wife was killed suddenly in a car crash leaving him alone to care for his young children. On 2 May 2016 he was found dead at home, in his office, of a suspected heart attack, by his wife Sue. An inquest found that he had taken cocaine shortly before his death, the cardiotoxic effects of which may have contributed to his heart attack. An open verdict was returned.