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Michael Parkinson left a six-figure sum to his wife of 64 years in his will.
The veteran chat show host died aged 88 in August 2023 from “frailty of old age”. His death followed an impressive career that saw him interview stars including Orson Welles, John Wayne and John Lennon.
Parkinson – whose will was signed off by a court last week – left an estate worth £308,985, which was reduced to £292,512 after funeral costs, legal bills and debts, per The Sun.
The presenter left all of his money and assets to his wife Mary Parkinson and appointed his three sons; Andrew, Nicholas and Mike, as executors when signing the will in May 2020.
Parkinson was born in Cudworth, South Yorkshire, in 1935, and was the son of a miner.
His career started in local journalism, where he had a job collating sports results. A two-year stint in the military beginning in 1955, around the time of the Suez crisis, saw him become what was then the youngest captain in the British army.
The TV star’s son, Mike, last year said that his late father suffered from “imposter syndrome” and “carried with him a sense of working-class guilt” throughout his career.
“He’s a much more confident man, much more, but then that’s because he’d earned his stripes,” he said. But in the Seventies, it was a constant battle to fight against, you know, people that wouldn’t really be bothered if you failed.”
Parkinson, the presenter’s flagship talk show, ran for 11 years on the BBC starting in 1971. It was later revived in 1998, ending in 2007.
After retiring from presenting that year, Parkinson returned to the airwaves in 2012 for the Sky Arts series Parkinson: Masterclass.
He also hosted the BBC’s famous radio series Desert Island Discs between 1986 and 1988, following the death of creator Roy Plomley.
Throughout his life, Parkinson estimated that he interviewed more than 2,000 celebrities. He once described the chat show format as “an unnatural act between consenting adults in public”.
Reflecting on the changing nature of TV interviews today in 2021, Parkinson praised Graham Norton, and remarked to the Radio Times: “In this ultra-sensitive world, I doubt I could actually do an interview nowadays without being sent off. There are so many pitfalls and booby traps in life now. I think I had the best of it.”
