Victoria Wood’s brother was banned from her funeral.
The ‘Dinnerladies’ star – who died in April at the age of 62 following a short battle with cancer – was laid to rest in May at Golders Green Crematorium in north London surrounded by her close friends and family, but her children Grace, 27, and Henry, 23, failed to invite her distant sibling Chris Foote-Wood.
Speaking on ‘Lorraine’ on Wednesday (02.11.16), he said: "I saw them at Victoria’s memorial service, and although I wasn’t invited to the funeral, I understand because they just wanted a very small number of people and they wanted to say goodbye to their mother privately without a lot of people being there so I’m quite happy with that. But the memorial service that I was invited too, was a marvellous occasion."
Shortly after Victoria’s tragic death, Chris announced he was penning a biography, in which he describes his late sister as "fat" and "miserable", but the news didn’t sit well with fans.
He explained: "I wanted to write the book anyway, because I think she’s such an important person in our cultural life and I think I’m in a unique position to judge what she did. We are 13 years apart, so we weren’t close but we cared for one another… so from my perspective I can stand back and look at her whole career and see what she did and how she did it."
And, despite the backlash he’s received, he’s claimed Victoria’s children are also planning to release their own book next year.
He said: "There’s never been any issue between her two children and myself. We get on OK. I did tell them at the start that I was writing this book and I did tell them if they wanted to be involved in it then they could… as a matter of fact, they are going to produce their own book which will be out next year."