Steve Wright left behind just £40,000 in his will with the majority of his estate being gifted to charity.
The BBC Radio 2 legend died aged 69 from a ruptured ulcer in his stomach at his £2million home in London on February 12, 2024.
He rose to fame in 1980 on BBC Radio 1, including fronting the channel’s prime-time breakfast show, before moving to Radio 2, where he was a constant feature.
But the star DJ’s estate had a net value of just £40,623 when he died, with the gross value rising to just £53,623.
In a generous final gesture, Steve gave £15,000 to Cancer Research in his will and another £10,000 to the British Heart Foundation.
The sum that remained – amounting to little more than £25,000 – was to be shared between his children, Lucy and Tom.
The will, made just two months before Steve died, directed that his funeral be paid for out of his own pocket alongside any inheritance tax or expenses relating to his death.
Steve joined BBC Radio 1 in 1980 to host a Saturday evening show before moving on to host Steve Wright In The Afternoon a year later until 1993.
Wright then fronted the Radio 1 Breakfast show for a year until 1995, and completed a stint at commercial radio stations before returning to BBC Radio 2 in 1996 to host Steve Wright’s Saturday Show and Sunday Love Songs.
In 1999, he recreated Steve Wright In The Afternoon every weekday on Radio 2, with celebrity interviews and entertaining trivia featured in his Factoids segment, before stepping down in September 2022.
Former BBC Radio 1 host Scott Mills took over the afternoon slot as part of the station’s schedule shake-up.
Wright continued to present Sunday Love Songs on BBC Radio 2 and since October last year, he presented the long-running show Pick Of The Pops, which had previously been fronted by Paul Gambaccini.
His last show was a pre-recorded Valentine’s Day edition of the programme three days after his death. Wright told listeners in his final sign-off: ‘I’ll be back for more love songs next Sunday, ta-da then.’
A statement shared by Wright’s family at the time said: ‘It is with deep sorrow and profound regret that we announce the passing of our beloved Steve Wright.
‘In addition to his son, Tom, and daughter, Lucy, Steve leaves behind his brother, Laurence and his father Richard.
‘Also, much-loved close friends and colleagues, and millions of devoted radio listeners who had the good fortune and great pleasure of allowing Steve into their daily lives as one of the UK’s most enduring and popular radio personalities.
‘As we all grieve, the family requests privacy at this immensely difficult time.’
In the year since his death, a bitter rift is said to have come between his family as it was reported they fell out after his elderly father, 94, married his much younger carer, who was 43 years his junior.
A source told The Sun: ‘It’s all very strange and obviously raises a lot of questions. He looks like he could be her grandfather. Only nine people attended the wedding. Laurence was so upset he refused to go.’
The publication reports that Steve’s brother Laurence Wright was particularly upset with the union, so much so that he refused to attend the wedding, which took place in September last year at Worthing Library in West Sussex.
It is said that the couple live in Richard’s £328,000 two-bedroom flat near the seaside town’s beach, with the area thought to be a ‘bolthole’ for the retired community and features a plethora of care homes.
Marta herself added to The Sun that the situation was ‘difficult’, insisting that she was ‘of course’ in love with her husband, before adding of Laurence’s absence at the wedding that he ‘wasn’t here’ and was in Spain ‘at that time.’
A source close to the couple shared: ‘They insist that they are incredibly happy together and are absolutely in love. Of course the fallout that has been sparked by their marriage is very sad for everyone involved.
‘But as far as they are concerned, there’s nothing more to it — they are simply happy to be together. Any suggestion of any nefarious wrongdoing is cruel and utterly without warrant. It is mean and callous, and very hurtful to both Marta and Richard.’
Following Steve’s death, his heartbroken brother blamed the BBC star’s death on his poor diet and claimed that he concealed his health problems from his family.
Laurence also shut down claims that the Corporation’s decision to axe him from his long-running Radio 2 Afternoon Show contributed to his death, revealing the veteran star was ‘thankful’ for the rest.
Speaking to MailOnline, Laurence said: ‘He was aware that he could have looked after himself better, in his lifestyle choices. Obviously we all wish he had.
‘It’s like anyone who doesn’t look after themselves over an extended period. The normal stuff – diet, nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress – he was a very stoic kind of guy as well so if he had something wrong with him and he had to go to have some treatment or go to the doctors, he wouldn’t talk about it.
‘He was the kind of guy who would just carry on, take care of it, not talk about it, not make a big thing, that kind of stoic sort of attitude.
‘That’s just how he was – that probably didn’t help really, because he wouldn’t have help or take advice necessarily.’
He said Steve didn’t feel he should have been sacked from his popular show – but needed a break.
Laurence, a director of a company in the health industry, says his older brother’s tendency for eating out at restaurants combined with his reluctance to talk about various ‘health issues’, keeping his family in the dark, were the main factors behind his shock death at the age of 69.
He said he enjoyed a close relationship with his brother, who stayed with him on the Christmas Day before his death along with their father.
He said Steve’s favourite place to eat out was the RAC club in London, which consists of many restaurants, and he chose to ignore home cooked food because he didn’t have the time to prepare meals, as he was so consumed by his job.
Laurence explained: ‘He probably had the balance of eating out and not so much home cooked [meals].
‘He could have done with a bit more balance where you’re cooking food yourself from home, but he didn’t do that because he was too busy. So hence he would always eat out.
‘He wasn’t a massive drinker, he just used to drink a glass of wine when he ate out but not a massive drinker. He didn’t smoke, he used to smoke a few cigars a few years back but doesn’t smoke.
‘He was just wrapped up in his job to such an extent – and he loved it – that was the important thing for him and other things that we all know is important – he didn’t consider that important, which is a shame really.
‘Food or exercise is just something you do to have to live. Whether that had any effect on what happened to him ultimately I don’t know.’
