Rafferty's 1.7m estate... but nothing for love who helped him fight drink after he failed to chang
By ANDREW YOUNG
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Music legend Gerry Rafferty did not leave a penny of his £1.7 million estate to his fiancée who helped him battle his alcohol problem.
Rafferty, famed for his massive 1978 hit Baker Street, failed to change his will after he got engaged to Italian designer Enzina Fuschini.
It meant his estate was divided up in accordance to a will he drew up in March 2007 – 18 months before he met mother-of-three Ms Fuschini.
Engaged: Enzina Fuschini with Gary Rafferty in France in 2009
The Scottish singer, who died in January aged 63, left his home in California and all its land and contents to his only daughter, Martha Rafferty, 41.
Everything else, including the rights to all future royalties from his songs, were left in trust for his granddaughter, Celia Rafferty.
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ShareProbate records released last week reveal that his estate was worth £1,747,802, reduced after liabilities to a net total of £1,248,524.
The star sold ten million records in his 40-year career. Royalties from Baker Street – which climbed to No 3 in the UK charts and No 2 in the US in 1978 – are said to be worth £80,000 a year.
The song’s haunting saxophone solo helped it retain its popularity and it is still played regularly on radio stations worldwide.
Flashback: Scottish singer Gerry Rafferty pictured in 1988
Rafferty was also known for his 1972 hit Stuck In The Middle With You, which he recorded with the band Stealers Wheel.
Despite his success, the singer was plagued by alcoholism for much of his life.
It cost him his 20-year marriage to childhood sweetheart Carla Ventilla, the mother of Martha. The couple divorced in 1990.
In 2005, with his drinking spiralling out of control, Rafferty fled to California but he had returned to London when he met Ms Fuschini, 56, in a cafe in September 2008.
Mr Rafferty being photographed in 1978
She invited him to stay with her at her home in Poole, Dorset, so he could get his life back on track.
The couple became engaged on Christmas Eve 2009 and they moved to a rented house near Poole, where they lived together until Rafferty’s health deteriorated.
Shortly after his death, Ms Fuschini, who also runs a gift shop, spoke of their ‘whirlwind’ romance. She said: ‘Gerry was moving from one London hotel to another and was very lonely.
‘His so-called friends had deserted him and no one took his calls. But we clicked immediately.
‘I wanted to help him overcome his alcohol addiction and he desperately wanted to change.
‘When I saw the unkempt state of his hotel room I realised he was suffering like a wounded animal. He pleaded with me to stay. I felt a surge of compassion and just wanted to look after him.
‘I’d no idea he was famous. I had heard Baker Street on the radio a few times but I never linked it with Gerry until one day he told me to type the name of the song into my computer.
‘I nearly fell off my chair. He was such a shy, private man – I couldn’t believe he was a star.’
She added: ‘We planned to buy our own home. Gerry liked warmer climates and perhaps we would have moved to France or Italy.’
Rafferty was admitted to the Royal Bournemouth Hospital in November last year where he was treated for multi-organ failure.
He rallied for a time after being taken off a life-support machine but later died at his daughter’s home in Stroud, Gloucestershire.
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