Victoria Wood is remembered as one of Britain’s most treasured comedians, adored for her witty observations about everyday life and relationships.
But behind the jokes and iconic piano sketches, the star endured private heartbreak in her marriage to magician Geoffrey Durham — a story that is now being revisited in a revealing new documentary.
Becoming Victoria Wood, released in cinemas on Friday, explores the comedian’s life through the memories of famous friends including Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Michael Ball and Joan Armatrading.
Although their romance began happily — Victoria once said things “clicked” when she met Geoffrey in 1976 while they were both performing at the Phoenix Theatre in Leicester — she often hinted that the relationship was far from simple.
When their marriage ended in 2002 after 26 years together, little was revealed about the cause. A spokesperson announced at the time: “The separation is entirely amicable – there are no other parties involved. They have asked for their privacy to be respected.”
Victoria later admitted she felt like a “failure” when the marriage broke down. Following her death from oesophageal cancer in 2016, both her children and Geoffrey chose to keep details about her illness largely private.
It therefore came as a surprise when it emerged that Victoria had left nothing to her former husband in her will. Instead, she donated half of her £9.3million estate to a charity set up in her name.
She first met Geoffrey shortly after winning New Faces in 1976, and once said:
“It was just one of those things when you click. He was encouraging — comedy is lonely without someone in your corner. We just did everything together.”
They married in 1980 and went on to have two children. Yet Victoria later revealed she had been reluctant to wed, influenced by her parents’ own failed relationship.
In Let’s Do It: The Authorised Biography of Victoria Wood, she confessed:
“I didn’t want to get married. He did. Every day he’d ask me to marry him.”
During their relationship, she also admitted she felt disillusioned with intimacy, saying:
“Sex never got any better. There’s something so stressful about it.”
After winning the first of her five BAFTAs for As Seen On TV, the couple retreated from the spotlight, buying their first home in a Lancashire village.
“I wanted to cut myself off. I wanted to be separate,” she said.
When Geoffrey moved out in 2002, Victoria was photographed kissing his tour manager, Helen Morris-Brown, just four months later — while the comedian herself never entered another long-term relationship.
She later revealed on Desert Island Discs that she suffered from depression following the split, describing herself as “a cartoon character who had run over a cliff.”
In interviews, she repeatedly took responsibility for the breakdown:
“If I f**d up, I bear the consequences. I felt a failure, completely.”
Despite implying that the end of the marriage had shaken her deeply, she never disclosed the full reasons behind it.
The final shock came after her death when it was revealed that she had left her £4million Highgate mansion and Lake District cottage to her children, Grace, 28, and Henry, 24, instructing that the Lake District home should not be sold “as long as it is enjoyed by family.”
She also left her personal letters, diaries and photographs to her children, believing they should remain private.
Her former husband — known on stage as The Great Soprendo — was not mentioned in the will.
Half of Victoria’s fortune was directed to establish the Victoria Wood Charitable Trust, supporting causes including young and disabled people.
She also left £50,000 each to her three siblings, Rosalind, Penelope and Chris Foote Wood, and between £2,000 and £25,000 to ten close friends and two godchildren.
Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/
