BRUCIE LEAVES £17M TO MISSUS
TV legend’s huge ‘bonus’ for wife
TV icon Bruce Forsyth left a £17m “Brucie Bonus” to his third wife Wilnelia.
The former Miss World will receive his entire fortune to share with other relatives in a bid to avoid a hefty inheritance tax bill.
SIR Bruce Forsyth is thought to have left his £17million estate to his widow Wilnelia.
The TV legend’s will is expected to say he has left his entire fortune to his third wife, a former Miss World and the mother of his only son JJ.
Leaving the fortune to his 59-year-old widow means his estate will be exempt from a massive inheritance tax bill.
Current law states spouses and civil partners can pass all their wealth to each other without it being taxed – a huge Brucie Bonus for Lady Forsyth-Johnson.
It is believed Bruce’s Puerto Rican widow will distribute a chunk of his estate among his five other children, nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Wilnelia – now the sole director of Bruce’s private company – will be able to give up to £650,000 in gifts tax-free to relatives under the current law.
A source said: “Bruce hated the idea of his estate getting devalued by inheritance tax and spoke about that publicly before his death.
“But leaving everything to Wilnelia means he avoids inheritance tax.
“He is likely to have done that as he trusted her to distribute the wealth among their relatives. And because she can give a significant amount away tax-free to their family, it means they end up with more.”
Bruce, who died aged 89 on Friday surrounded by Wilnelia and his children, once said that the levy was “over the top”.
The keen politics watcher – who used to record Prime Minister’s Questions so he would never miss it – said in 2015: “I think your inheritance should go to your children more than back to the country that you’ve lived in.
“I’m not saying you don’t owe the country something, of course you owe your country a lot for living there all those years. But I think it can be a bit over the top.” Bruce had three daughters – Debbie, Julie and Laura – with first wife Penny Calvert, a former dancer from whom he split in 1973.
That year, the TV host married Anthea Redfern, his hostess on The Generation Game. They had two daughters, Charlotte and Louisa.
Their six-year marriage ended following allegations of infidelity.
Bruce’s company Bruce Forsyth Enterprises, that handled his huge TV earnings, is worth more than £6.2m.
He and Wilnelia were the company’s only directors, leaving her now in charge of its operation.
Bruce and Wilnelia married in 1983 after the TV presenter fell in love with the 1975 Miss World winner when they co-judged the 1980 contest.
They lived in a house near the Wentworth golf course in Surrey which is worth an estimated £4m.
Brucie was estimated to be worth £17m by financial magazine Spears. Along with the £10m worth of his company and mansion, he was thought to charge at least £25,000 for personal appearances and after-dinner speeches. He was reportedly paid £500,000 for writing Bruce: The Autobiography in 2001. He also owned two homes in his widow’s native Puerto Rico, worth
£2m. His other assets amounted to £4m in private savings, investments and assets such as jewellery and antiques.
Even though he was long past retirement age Bruce never claimed his basic pension, which will now also pass to his widow to handle.
For the eighth series of BBC show Strictly Come Dancing he agreed to a
£160,000 pay cut, reportedly getting paid
£500,000 for the contest’s
2010 run. But he had always been a high-earning star – in
1958 when hosting the popular TV show Saturday Night at the
London Palladium, his
£1,000-per-week wage made him one of Britain’s highest-earning entertainers at the time.
Just days before he died, Bruce had cracked gags about his illness.
His manager revealed in a statement released on Friday that he told a friend: “I’ve been very, very busy... being ill!”
Bruce holds the Guinness World Record of longest television career for a male entertainer at more than 75 years.