Legendary TV strongman Geoff Capes leaves eye-watering amount to his wife in will after death aged 75
LEGENDARY TV strongman Geoff Capes left a huge amount to his family in his will, documents reveal.
The Olympic shot put hero passed £239,000 to his wife after he died last October aged 75.
He directed the estate he held in a trust for second wife Kashmiro Bhatti after they wed in 2018.
His kids Lewis and Emma, who Capes coached to international level in the shot-put, were given expensive vases and a grandfather clock.
The star’s vast medal and trophy collection was passed to grandsons Lawson, 16, who competes in the Team GB youth setup, and Donovan.
The TV star and Commonwealth Games athlete, who ate 6,000 calories a day and bred budgies in his spare time, signed his final will in 2021.
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It was processed by the High Court last week.
Capes, from Holbeach in Lincolnshire, was adored by millions and became a household name in the 80s and 90s.
He got into weightlifting while working as a police officer aged 19, five years after leaving school with no qualifications.
The 6ft 6ins star, who still holds the British shot put record, was also twice named World's Strongest Man.
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His first victory came in the World's Strongest Man event in 1983 in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the second was two years later in Cascais, Portugal.
During his shot put career, he won gold medals in the European Indoor Championships and the Commonwealth Games.
He was also a three-time Olympian, competing at Munich in 1972, Montreal in 1976 in Moscow in 1980.
And he was infamously sent home in disgrace from the European Athletics Championships in 1978, after punching a referee and two guards holding machine guns.
They had complained he was wearing the wrong number on his vest.
After retiring, he went on to coach stars in both athletics and strength athletics – but remained a household name and famously became the frontman for Volkswagen.
In one 1983 advert, a suited Capes heaved a car on its side as the voiceover said: “You don’t have to be the richest or strongest man in the world to pick up a Polo.”
Away from the spotlight, Capes took up budgie breeding after chatting to a man he was supposed to arrest.
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He recalled: “We sat down, had a cup of tea and had a chat about budgerigars. I did eventually arrest him.
“But he was very good about it and he started me off by giving me my first three pairs of budgerigars. From there, I’ve never looked back.”
