Victoria Wood is renowned as one of nation’s most beloved comedians, entertaining millions with her witty takes on mundane marriages and daily life woes.
But behind her one-liners and famous piano numbers, the star went through strife of her own in her marriage to her husband Geoffrey Durham, 76, with a revealing new documentary set to bring insight into the star’s life.
Becoming Victoria Wood, which was released in cinemas on Friday, is set to explore the life of the late comedian alongside insights from famous friends like Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Michael Ball, and Joan Armatrading.
Despite happier origins – Victoria said that things ‘clicked’ between her and Geoffrey when they met back in 1976 – the comedian frequently implied they were troubles in the relationship, including her reluctance to get married in the first place.
Details about the cause of their split have been questioned for many years, with a spokesperson simply announcing saying: ‘The separation is entirely amicable – there are no other parties involved. They have asked for their privacy to be respected.’
Victoria herself was impartial on the subject, saying in an interview she felt like a ‘failure’ when the marriage ended, and following her death from oesophageal cancer in 2016, both her children and ex-husband Geoffrey kept details about her death to minimum.
Despite being known as one of the nation’s most beloved comedians, Victoria Wood battled a secret heartache, when her marriage to Geoffrey Durham ended in 2002 (pictured in 1991)
A new documentary is set to share insight into the star’s life, including her failed relationship with the magician, to whom she left nothing in her £9.3 million will (pictured in 1997)
Given the lack of insight, it was a surprise when it was revealed that Victoria had left nothing to her ex-husband Geoffrey in her will, instead donating half of her £9.3 million fortune to a charity set up in her name.
She first met her husband Geoffrey, a magician and actor, in 1976 shortly after she won New Faces, when they were both appearing at the Phoenix Theatre, Leicester.
She later said of him: ‘It was just one of those things when you click. He was encouraging because comedy’s a very lonely thing to do without someone in your corner. I don’t think it would have worked as well with him. We just did everything together.’
The couple married in 1980 and they went on to have two children together, but the comic previously confessed she was reluctant to tie the knot, given her own parents’ failed relationship.
Speaking in Let’s Do It: The Authorised Biography of Victoria Wood, she said: ‘I didn’t want to get married. He did. Every day he’d ask me to marry him,’ confessing she finally relented after a string of rows over why they had not wed.
During her relationship, Victoria confessed that she was disillusioned with the idea of sex, saying: ‘It’s never got any better. Sex. There’s something so stressful about it. I keep thinking in the end they will just have to faze it out altogether.’
But after winning the first of her five BAFTAs for As Seen On TV, she and Geoffrey retreated further and bought their first home together in a small village in Lancashire.
‘I wanted to cut myself off. I wanted to be separate,’ she said.
Despite happier origins – Victoria said that things ‘clicked’ when they met back in 1976 – the comedian frequently implied they were troubles in the relationship (pictured in 1991)
The couple married in 1980 and they went on to have two children together, but the comic previously confessed she was reluctant to tie the knot (pictured in 1986)
Victoria (pictured in 2015) died in 2026 at the age of 62 after a battle with oesophageal cancer
Victoria herself was impartial on the subject, saying in an interview she felt like a ‘failure’ when the marriage ended (pictured on stage with her spouse in 1982)
The couple were together for 26 years, but when they split in 2002, little was known about the cause of the end of their marriage.
Within four months of him Geoffrey moving out, the star was photographed kissing his tour manager, Helen Morris-Brown, while the comic never had another long-term relationship.
Victoria also shared that she suffered from depression after they separated, admitting on Desert Island Discs that she felt ‘like a cartoon character who had run over a cliff.’
In a later interview, she said: ‘I take a lot of responsibility. I bear the consequences. I don’t feel hard done by.
‘I’ve felt very guilty about my part in it. I felt a failure, completely. That’s quite hard to live with.’
Victoria was tight-lipped about the cause for her marital split, but did tell The Guardian in 2005 she ‘f****d up’ and felt ‘guilty’ about her part in the relationship’s failure.
She said: ‘‘I take a lot of responsibility. If I f****d up, then I bear the consequences. I don’t feel hard done by. I’ve felt very guilty about my part in it.’
‘I felt a failure, completely. That’s quite hard to live with. If you’re quite a punishing sort of person anyway, then: woah, you’ve suddenly got the biggest mallet to whack yourself over the head with.’
The star has implied that the end of the marriage came as a shock, adding: ‘You look back at the good bits and the bad bits and you think, were the good bits that good?
‘You churn the whole thing over and oh, it’s exhausting, trying to make sense of something that, in the end, you can’t make sense of. But it shakes your perception of yourself on a really basic level.’
Within four months of him Geoffrey moving out, the star was photographed kissing his tour manager, while the comic never had another long-term relationship (pictured in 1995)
It then came as a huge shock when she died, she left him without a penny in her will, and instead left her £4million Highgate mansion and Lake District cottage to their kids Grace, 28, and Henry, 24.
But the Dinnerladies star made no mention of her comedy magician ex partner, known as the ‘Great Soprendo’, who she was married to for 22 years.
The comic left half of her fortune to set up the charity Victoria Wood Charitable Trust, to support causes like helping young and disabled people, The Sun reported.
Handing over her Lake District property to her children, she gave the instructions that it should not be sold ‘so long as it’s enjoyed by family’.
Grace and Henry were also given her letters, diaries and photos which it’s believed she wanted to be kept private.
She also gave £50,000 each to her three siblings – Rosalind, Penelope and brother Chris Foote Wood, 76.
The screenwriter gave between £2,000 to £25,000 to ten of her closest friends, including her two godchildren.
