TRAGEDY: Emmerdale star Bobby Knutt, who played Albert Dingle, left no will to his children and refused to leave them any assets EXCEPT a £350,000 debt

Emmerdale star Bobby Knutt, who played Albert Dingle in the long-running ITV soap, snubbed his four children in his will following his sudden d3ath in September 2017. Despite leaving a £350,000 fortune, he bequeathed just £5,000 to two and didn’t mention the other two at all. Probate documents show his sister Tina Martin received two-thirds of the estate, while the remaining third was handed to Michael and Patricia Ward, who Knutt described as “my closest friends”.

The will stipulated that they should benefit from the sale of his home in the village of Elsecar, South Yorkshire, along with the property’s contents and his cars. He also left them his collection of “jesters and military miniatures”. His Royal Doulton “Punch and Judy man” was bequeathed to another friend, Ian Crossley, who performs under the name Fine Time Fontaine. He left his collection of ceramic models of Tea Folk characters and memorabilia to Tina. He also left his Omega Seamaster watch and collection of watercolours of Derbyshire scenes to his friend and lawyer Stephen Smith, saying: “They would look nice in his bar.”

However, his adult children, Angela Croydon and Simon Wass, received just £5,000 each in the will he made in June 2014. His other children, Andrew and Cherine, were not mentioned.

Alongside his role in Emmerdale, Bobby was well known to viewers as Eddie Dawson in the comedy Benidorm. He also played Ron Sykes in Coronation Street for three years.

He was 71 when he d!ed after suffering a heart attack while holidaying in the south of France. He left a gross estate of £365,055 and, after his outstanding affairs were finalised, a net estate of £350,282.

The actor was married three times, and had two sons and two daughters by his first two wives.

But the love of his life was his third wife, former Olympic athlete Donna Hartley, who d!ed suddenly aged 58 from suspected heart failure as she sunbathed in the couple’s garden in June 2013. His dying wish was to be buried in the same grave as her.

The couple met while Knutt was performing at Butlin’s holiday camp in Pwllheli, north Wales.

They married in 1986, and on their 25th wedding anniversary, Knutt said of his wife, who won a bronze medal in the 400 metre relay at the 1980 Moscow Olympics: “I wish I’d married my third wife first.”

He plunged into a depression after Donna’s d3ath before landing the role of Eddie Dawson in ITV’s Benidorm. He said: “She was the great love of my life – my best pal. We never rowed in all our years together. For 12 months after Donna d!ed, I was in a very dark place.”