D’Apulget was a successful author who brought her own star power to her relationship with her ‘great love’, Bob Hawke

D'Alpuget's lust for life endured into her senior years. Her family described her as a woman who "lived life on her own terms".

She was an acclaimed author of biographies, novels and essays, and won the NSW Premier’s Award for her political biography about her late husband Bob Hawke.