Former Labor senator, party powerbroker and media commentator Graham Richardson has died at the age of 76.

The former senator died at 3.50am, from influenza and pneumonia., his wife told Ben Fordham on 2GB.

"Darcy and Amanda have asked me to share the news with everyone that, sadly, Richo has passed away in the early hours of this morning," Fordham said.

"In the past few weeks, he's had a bout of influenza and then pneumonia, he also had a little stint on dialysis, trying to clean up his blood a little bit."

Fordham said he lived long enough to see his son mark a milestone.

"When he had his big health challenge, he said to his wife Amanda, 'I'm going to live till I see Darcy finish exams and his HSC'. Darcy did his last HSC exam on Thursday, which was his French exam. And Richo's di

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