The widower of Lynda Bellingham, Michael Pattemore, enjoyed an around-the-world trip following the death of the ‘Loose Women’ star.
Lynda, who became a household name after starring in the Oxo TV ads for 16 years, left control of her fortune to her third husband.
But her two sons, Michael and Robbie Peluso, say it was her intention that he ‘looked after’ them following her death from bowel cancer in October 2014.
They claim to have only received £750 each since their mother’s death and are now in the process of challenging their mother’s will.
After she died, Michael embarked on a trip that saw him visit the Great Wall of China, Ayres Rock in Australia, India’s Taj Mahal, and the Kremlin in the Russian capital of Moscow, and documented his travels in a series of selfies on Twitter.
There is no evidence to suggest property developer Pattemore didn’t pay for the trips himself.
Michael told the Daily Mail: “Within a few months of mum’s death, he’d been to Dubai three times, to Peru, to Canada to see where Mum was born and on a round-the-world trip.
In the interview with the newspaper, Michael and Robbie also hit out at their stepfather for ‘disrespecting their mother’s memory’.
They say the final straw came when he claimed she had visited him from the afterlife and he had made love to her ‘ghost spirit’.
Robbie told the newspaper: “At that point I thought, ‘No. Enough is enough.’ That interview was awful, so disrespectful to my mother.”
They have also accused Lynda’s widower of depriving them of their inheritance, evicting them from the family home and squandering thousands from their mother’s estate.
In her will, the 66-year-old actress left everything to her third husband, who has reportedly told the boys that all of her money is tied up in properties and so is impossible to access.
Michael and Robbie have since hired a legal firm to contest their mother’s will. The firm has agreed to represent them on a no-win, no-fee basis.
“We’ve been through hell,” said Michael. “The stress of what’s been happening with our stepfather has prevented us from grieving properly.