'Penniless' Coronation Street star died days after begging ex-wife for forgiveness
Status Quo legend Rick Parfitt passed away merely four days after pleading with his first wife for forgiveness following her decision to wed him when he was penniless. The musician, who died in 2016 aged 68, left behind a modest estate after projections of a £10million fortune being inherited by his family proved to be wildly inaccurate.Rick - who also featured in five episodes of ITV soap Coronation Street back in 2005, portraying himself - may have achieved remarkable stardom with his band throughout the years, but his early career was marked by financial hardship. According to his first wife, Marietta Boeker, Rick was squandering excessive amounts on drugs and vehicles. She told the Daily Mail in 2017: "Rick got to the stage where he'd take three grams of cocaine a day, with seven bottles of wine and a bottle of whisky to go with it."The money was going out of the window as fast as it came in. Most of it went on cars, drugs, big hotels and women."Despite these difficulties, Marietta was so infatuated with Rick that she relinquished her entitlement to a £2million inheritance from her affluent father in order to wed him. Her dad even proposed purchasing her a luxurious flat to prevent the marriage, but she declined.She recalled: "Rick was extremely poor at this stage. I asked him if he could borrow a dinner jacket [for Christmas with her family]. He appeared on Christmas Eve in a white satin suit with white platforms and blonde curls." When Marietta relinquished her inheritance, she relocated to Rick's mother's two-bedroom council house in Woking - 144 crystal glasses in packing boxes.However, as matters began to deteriorate and Rick embarked on affairs with groupies, Marietta's father handed the couple £100,000 to move into a bungalow together, before raising sufficient funds for a nine-acre estate in Surrey. Sadly, their relationship only worsened, with Marietta claiming Rick would destroy furniture - and she recalled waking on several occasions to find bruises on her body.Marietta and Rick had two children together, but their daughter Heidi tragically drowned in the family swimming pool at just two years old. The strain ultimately led to divorce, with Rick subsequently marrying Patty Beeden and later Lyndsay Whitburn.By 2016, as Rick approached the final chapter of his life, he had pleaded with Marietta for forgiveness over the telephone. She explained: "We chatted for almost two hours about God and the world, including the songs both of us wanted to be played at our funerals."By the time Rick passed away from sepsis, his third wife, Lyndsay, feared she had been cut from Rick's will - deeply concerned about the future of their twins. His estate amounted to just £230,000 after debts and costs were deducted, despite once being valued at an estimated £10million. Nevertheless, a will signed four days before his death confirmed the money would be split between Lyndsay and his children.
