Sir David Attenborough is oldest Daytime Emmy winner for Secret Lives of Orangutans

Sir David Attenborough has broken the record for the oldest winner of a Daytime Emmy award for his work on documentary Secret Lives of Orangutans.

The 99-year-old came out top in the outstanding daytime personality, non-daily category, with the Netflix film – which follows a group of apes living in the jungles of Sumatra, Indonesia – also coming away with two other awards.

Sir David beat the record previously held by actor Dick Van Dyke, who was 98 when he won the guest performer in a daytime drama series category in 2024.

The 52nd annual Daytime Emmys was held on Friday in Pasadena, California, but Sir David – who is eight months away from his 100th birthday – was not in attendance.

Secret Lives of Orangutans also won outstanding music direction and composition and outstanding directing team for a single camera daytime non-fiction programme.

Writer, broadcaster and naturalist, Sir David’s career spans more than 70 years during which his voice has become synonymous with natural history programmes both in the UK and across the English-speaking world.

His award-winning natural history programmes include Life on Earth, The Private Life of Plants and The Blue Planet.

More than 40 animals and plant species have also been named after him.

Earlier this year he released his cinema-length film Ocean, which he described as one of the most important projects of his career and spoke of his belief it could play a decisive role in saving biodiversity and protecting the planet from climate change.

Other winners at Friday’s ceremony included long-running daytime soap General Hospital for outstanding daytime drama series and actress and presenter Drew Barrymore for outstanding daytime talk series host.