Len Goodman left a huge fortune behind following his death last year.
Len was the head judge on the BBC dance show for 12 years, as well as being a star across the Atlantic on the US version of Strictly, called Dancing with the Stars. His will, which was released in June, shows that his time on television helped him amass a £4.1 million fortune, which included his home in Kent, his business company as well as personal possessions.
Len's company, Pleasurable Pastimes Limited, will be split between his wife Susan and son James, with the pair already directors of the business. The rest of his estate was also split equally between his wife and son.
His passing brought tributes from royalty and the Prime Minister at the time. Queen Camila, who danced with Len in 2019, at an event, said she was "saddened to hear the news" of his death. Rishi Sunak also added that Len was "a great entertainer, a popular face on TV screens up and down the country".
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PA)Len began dancing when aged 19 after it was recommended as good exercise for an injured foot by a doctor. The East Londoner recalled in his autobiography, Better Late Than Never: From Barrow Boy to Ballroom, that his grandmother bathed him in a cauldron. Len wrote: "She'd give me a good scrubbing down while I stood in the cauldron. — I must have looked a bit like a cannibal's lunch. After all my filth had been washed off, the water was heated some more and then in would go the beetroot for cooking.
“By then the water would have a kind of scum floating on the top of it. Customers always commented on how good Granddad's beetroot tasted.”
Before joining Strictly, Len said that he thought he had a bad audition and this feeling continued when he received a call from the show's producer, Izzie Pick. He revealed: "I felt sure it hadn't gone well, but two days later Izzie called again. She wanted me on Strictly Come Dancing! I nearly bashed my head on the ceiling.
“Here I was, about to enter my 60s, starting out on a whole new adventure and my first job on TV. Not bad for the grandson of an East End barrow boy — and someone who'd never wanted to be a ballroom dancer in the first place.”
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