Did grieving son of Oxo mum ban her widower from his wedding?
‘He says he’s close but he’s not’
SHE epitomised happy family life as the Oxo mum and longed for the same in her own.
But even Lynda Bellingham’s tragic death has failed to unite those close to her.
Yesterday it was claimed that her son did not invite her widower Michael Pattemore to his wedding after a feud about the late actress’s estate. Robert Peluso, 29, married Savannah Brown in a lavish ceremony in New York on April 8, with his brother Michael as his best man.
But Mr Pattemore was not at the ceremony, according to reports, suggesting that relations between him and Miss Bellingham’s sons are at an all-time low.
Following Miss Bellingham’s death from cancer in 2014, Robert and Michael, 34, claim Mr Pattemore has only given them a small sum from their mother’s estate. They also accused him of kicking them out of the family home. The pair did not contest their late mother’s will, in which she left everything to Mr Pattemore, before she lost her life to bowel cancer aged 66.
But they said they believe she trusted her husband to ensure her sons would be adequately provided for and this had not occurred.
Mr Pattemore, 62, reportedly bought an eight-bedroom house for £605,000 and spent thousands on exotic holidays after Miss Bellingham’s death, visiting Dubai three times.
The brothers are now challenging Mr Pattemore over the will. Mr Peluso and Miss Brown got engaged in last August. The wedding and reception was held at the Player’s Club near New York’s Gramercy Park, where jazz club entertainer Miss Brown performed a special dance for guests and her new husband with her bridesmaids.
Robert’s brother Michael tweeted a photo of the happy couple with the caption: ‘They did it!’ The brothers have previously said they were shocked and saddened by an interview Mr Pattemore gave following their mother’s death, in which he claimed he had had sex with her ghost. Following the interview Robert said: ‘When I read the interview about her ghost, I knew it was time to stand up for her. Our stepfather always says he’s close to us but that’s not the case.’ Lynda split from her sons’ violent and abusive father, Nunzio Peluso, in 1994, and it was just the three of them until she met Mr Pattemore ten years later.
In more recent times, she became better known as a presenter on the ITV daytime chat show Loose Women.
Bellingham was a contender for ‘Britain’s favourite mum’ throughout the Eighties and Nineties after starring in a hugely successul series of adverts for Oxo. They first screened in 1983.
But behind the scenes she had three marriages in all, firstly to theatrical producer Greg Smith, secondly to Peluso and then to Mr Pattemore.