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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Ken Dodd marriage

149 replies

BringMeTea · 12/03/2018 22:39

To be delighted he married his partner of 40 years 3 days before he died? I have known of several cases where unmarried long term partners end up with nothing and the government take the lot. Given his historical very public tax evasion case (which he won afaik) it must have put his mind at rest to know his partner would inherit.

OP posts:
allyjay · 13/03/2018 17:32

Yes I noticed this about accent too. My dad is a scouser, from Aintree. Is 70 now. Normal working class family. He sounds far more likely Ken Dodd than he does Wayne Rooney. I've often wondered about this

Bluelady · 13/03/2018 17:35

Oddly, when HMRC ask for your marriage certificate fir inheritance tax, they don't ask if the marriage was consummated.

retirednow · 13/03/2018 17:36

Do uou think there is someone checking up on people to make sure they dtd after the wedding, what a bizarre commentConfused

Knitjob · 13/03/2018 17:41

I think it is an insult to his long term partner. Why would he not marry her before

Maybe she didn't want to marry him before

ShortandAnnoying · 13/03/2018 17:41

You can get an annulment if the marriage isn't consummated but it doesn't have to be. It's the ceremony that makes it legal.

LardLizard · 13/03/2018 17:48

Seems odd to me hat he didn’t marry her before
Sounds a bit shady

Bluelady · 13/03/2018 17:52

It happens all the time. Lots of people see no need to be married until it's expedient to protect the surviving partner legally and financially.

Idratherhaveacupoftea · 13/03/2018 17:54

He was engaged to his previous fiancé for 25 years until she died of a brain tumour. He didn't marry her either.

Penfold007 · 13/03/2018 17:57

BringMeTea in the BBC series Back in time for Tea the children of the Ellis family when watching the very first episode of Coronation Street said they struggled to understand the accents and that today's Lancashire accent is very different. I suspect regional accents all over the country have changed, perhaps due to the influence of TV etc?

Gottagetmoving · 13/03/2018 18:07

I think it is an insult to his long term partner. Why would he not marry her before?

My DP and I are not married... He won't marry me and I won't marry him. We've been together over thirty years. Neither of us feel insulted or are trying to insult the other.

backaftera2yearbreak · 13/03/2018 18:10

I work for Macmillan. Lots of people get married quickly when they realise they have limited time left.

kittensinmydinner1 · 13/03/2018 18:17

Well, I really had in mind DP. He technically owns our house/mortgage (when we were looking to buy he was in a well-paid permanent job and I was self-employed and a low earner).

No 'technical' about it. If your name isn't on the deeds and your not married - then the house is his to leave to whoever he wishes and leaves it wide open for his children, siblings and parents to inherit if he hasn't specifically bequeathed it to you and open to a challenge of the will even if he has. (and if he has left a Will he is still able to change this at anytime without your knowledge) Marriage makes the house half yours automatically. This means he could only leave half to anyone else including you.
There is NO other way to guarantee the same rights as marriage- except marriage.

ForalltheSaints · 13/03/2018 18:18

I was glad for him and Anne, his widow.

Firesuit · 13/03/2018 18:57

Marriage makes the house half yours automatically.

That doesn't sound right to me. Can any post any links for or against that idea? (Assume we mean in England.)

Firesuit · 13/03/2018 18:58

Say the house is held only in the husband's name, even if the wife has registered "home rights" so he can't make her homeless by selling it, those rights apparently end on the death of either party, according to a page I've just googled.

BobbinThreadbare123 · 13/03/2018 19:11

Ken's accent was just how many Liverpudlians sound. There's a significant variation across the city and the Toxteth/Kirkdale etc accent is much more phlegmy than places like Knotty Ash. There's been a shift anyway, as the heavy industry and smog has pretty much gone, so its less chesty than once it was. Ever heard Cilla?

Beetlejizz · 13/03/2018 19:14

MichaelBendfaster it sounds from what you're saying that you're not married and you live in a home your DP owns and you don't? Forgive me if I have misinterpreted. That's not a very well protected position to be in, you know. Have you taken legal advice on your position, do you both have wills? I know you said you don't want to marry but tbh if you are living in a house you don't own with your DP, it would be worth revising that opinion.

Being married doesn't make the house half yours as such, it's when the relationship ends through either divorce or death that marriage makes the difference. In the event of divorce, it's part of the marital pot of assets to divide, except sometimes when the union has been very short, and in the event of death you can challenge a will that doesn't include provision for you or, if there's no will, you'll inherit a certain amount automatically. And yes there's also the home rights point.

tiredbutFuckIt · 13/03/2018 19:17

Older scousers say Cewk and Bwook for cook and book. Youngsters say cooookh and boookh. And lid instead of lad/kid.

Bluelady · 13/03/2018 19:18

This is the law on inheritance for spouses in the absence of a will.

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/death-and-wills/who-can-inherit-if-there-is-no-will-the-rules-of-intestacy/

Allthebestnamesareused · 13/03/2018 19:18

They didn't want to marry before but did it as a final 2 fingers up at the taxman

Bluelady · 13/03/2018 19:20

Probably not, he wanted her to be secure. Like you do if you love someone.

reddressblueshoes · 13/03/2018 19:23

I don't understand what people think the difference is between a civil partnership and marriage- marriage is a secular contract you make with the state nominating one person who you are going to share your assets with, more or less. What is so different with civil partnerships, aside from the name of marriage?

Bluelady · 13/03/2018 19:32

Nothing. I don't understand why they didn't just bin civil partnerships when same sex marriage was legalised.

Beetlejizz · 13/03/2018 19:34

I think it's the historical context, the sexist associations etc. Although many gay people found civil partnership to be othering and unequal, so I'm never sure why people would be put off by the dubious history of one institution and not another.

ShortandAnnoying · 13/03/2018 19:39

It's funny he wasn't married but one of the first jokes of his quoted in many of the papers was "I haven't talked to my MiL for 18 months- I didn't like to interrupt her."