Shane MacGowan's enormous fortune and why his widow got less than £1million
Share:
The late Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan made a fortune thanks to his much-loved 1988 festive hit Fairytale of New York. The singer, who had well-documented problems with drugs and alcohol, died from pneumonia following a battle with encephalitis on November 30 last year, at the age of 65.
Shane had been with his wife Victoria Mary Clarke for decades, marrying in a lavish fairy tale wedding in Copenhagen in 2018 after 32 years together. Their intimate nuptials featured guests including Hollywood A lister Johnny Depp. Shane and Victoria lived in a home in Dublin's swanky Ballsbridge suburb and he named his wife as an executor in his will. But while the frontman was said to have made £200,000 to £250,000 in royalties from his Christmas song each year according to Business Plus, Victoria did not inherit his whole estate, worth an estimated £4.3 million.
Shane's will said that if Victoria died 'predeceasing me/or dying simultaneously', he wanted his sister Siobhan Hayes to inherit his estate 'for her own absolute use and benefit'. His wife was left £710,000. Speaking after her husband's passing, Victoria said Shane 'will always be the light that I hold before me and the measure of my dreams and the love of my life and the most beautiful soul and beautiful angel and the sun and the moon and the start and end of everything that I hold dear'.
