His parents separated in 1990, and their divorce case was finalized five years later. His mother remarried Jonathan Hellyer Jones in 1996. Following her remarriage, Jane used to continue to support her ex-husband through his health problems, as he continued to work. His father married Elaine Mason, a nurse, in 1995, but they divorced in 2006.

In a rare interview, Timothy admitted that in earlier days he was not able to understand the cause of his father's deteriorating speech. According to Tim, Stephen was able to communicate well with his family. But as days passed his speech disorder took a serious turn and as such he was not able to communicate well. Because of the impairment of speech, Timothy was noncommunicative with his father for about five years.

When the speech impairment effect got more and more pronounced, Stephen Hawking had no other options but to use a voice synthesizer. In his interview, Timothy also revealed that both he and his father had a passion driving motor cars, and they often joined Formula 1 supremo Frank Williams, who was also in a wheelchair, watching the races from the Williams team pit.

It was a piece of advice given to him by his father when he was 12 that Tim treasured the most, “I remember asking him a question which I think at the time I thought was a bit silly. I wanted to know if there were lots of other tiny universes dotted around. He gave me the answer and then he told me never to be afraid to come up with an idea or a hypothesis no matter how daft it might seem."

When Timothy, Lucy, and Robert announced the death of their dad, they wrote “He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years. He once said, ‘It would not be much of a universe if it wasn’t home to the people you love.’ We will miss him forever.”