Mum inherits tragic Caroline’s £500,000
BRILLIANT comic writer and actress Caroline Aherne left an estate of more than £500,000 which has been inherited by her mother Maureen.
The Royle Family star, 52, who was unmarried and had no children, left no will when she died from lung cancer in July.
She became a household name as the bespectacled TV chat hostess in The Mrs Merton Show which ran on the BBC from 1995 to 1998.
Her character would gently put down celebrity interview guests with barbed one-liners.
Alcoholism
Mrs Merton famously asked Debbie McGee: “So tell me, what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?”
Bafta-winning Caroline also wrote and appeared in The Fast Show and co-created The Royle Family, which ran from 1998 to 2000, followed by specials.
She was the daughter of Ricky Tomlinson and Sue Johnston in the family glued to their TV.
In private, Caroline battled alcoholism and depression and moved to Australia in 2001 after announcing she was quitting showbusiness. She returned to TV to narrate Channel 4’s Gogglebox from 2013 until she became too ill to continue in April this year.
Ex-smoker Caroline revealed in 2014 that she had lung cancer.
She died alone at her bungalow in Timperley, near Altrincham, Greater Manchester. She was married to New Order bassist Peter Hook for three years from 1994 to 1997.
He revealed in his autobiography after her death that she had attacked him with knives, bottles and chairs during their marriage.
Her outraged family called the claim “disgusting”.