Lynda Bellingham's sons accuse their stepfather of forcing them to return a family photo album amid a bitter row over her inheritance 

Lynda Bellingham sons have given their first television interview talking about their bitter row with their step-father over their mother's inheritance.

Michael Peluso, 32, said their mother would have 'wanted to make sure we would be okay and have a roof over her heads' by trusting her third husband Michael Pattemore with her estate after she died in 2014.

Instead the brothers say the property developer, who was left everything in her will, has only given them gifts amounting to £750 each and forced Robbie, 27, to move out of the family home.

Lynda Bellingham's sons Michael, right, and Robbie Peluso appeared on today's This Morning

The brothers told Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby that Robbie was ordered by their stepfather to move out and even told to return photos of his mother 

He said he was even ordered to return a photo album to Mr Pattemore after he took it as a way to remember his mother.

Appearing on today's This Morning, Robbie - a guest relations manager at a London hotel - told Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield: 'When I was told to move out I took things that had sentimental value like family pictures and paintings. 

'He wasn't happy, there were various texts saying I shouldn't have taken them. He said he used the photo albums for press.'

Michael, 32, confirmed his brother's story saying they had to take a TV back after he moved out of the London home, even though it had previously been given to them as a gift.

He added of the family photo album: 'He said "how dare you take those photos, I need them for press".'

It is the way the widower has spoken of their mother to the newspapers that has also upset the brothers.

The siblings say they are not contesting the will their mother wrote, leaving everything to her third husband, but they believe he has not honoured her wishes to take care of them

In particular, they were shocked and saddened by an interview he gave in which he claimed he had had sex with her ghost.

The brothers say that they haven't been able to properly grieve for their mother since she died 18 months ago due to the public fall out.

Meanwhile in recent months, Mr Pattemore has reportedly bought an eight-bedroom mansion for £605,000 and spent thousands on exotic holidays.

Within months of her death, he had been to Dubai three times, as well as Peru, Canada and on a round-the-world trip for eight weeks.

The pair said they are not contesting the will that their mother signed before she lost her life to bowel cancer aged 66.

But they believe she trusted her husband to ensure her sons would be adequately provided for and this has not occurred.

Robbie, left, and Michael say they are unhappy with the way their stepfather has spoken of their mother, especially after he gave an interview saying her had slept with her ghost

Robbie said: 'We're not actually challenging the validity of the will as such. She's made that decision and for all intents and purposes she's signed that will regardless of the fact that she may have been under a lot of medication.

'She was rushed into hospital on the 13th December because her colon burst and she was given a 50/50 chance of coming out of that surgery. 30th December the will is dated, so within less than two weeks she's signing a new will when you've just been told you’ve got a 50/50 chance of dying. 

'She went onto live until October, we don't feel it was necessary to rush that - we also wanted to be included in the decisions being made and we weren't.'

He added: 'We want security, we want to know what our mum wanted will be done and we don't have to wake up to more articles about her.' 

The brothers wish they could have sat in on the formal discussions on their mother's will so they had a stronger case on the wishes she expressed for them 'at every Sunday lunch'.

They have been battling with their stepfather to see a copy of her will since her death. 

The siblings say the bad feeling between them and Michael would be the last thing their mother would have wanted.

Robbie said: 'This is not where we thought we would be 18 months later and not where she would want us to be either.' 

The brothers said their mother was always 'very trusting and saw the best in everyone' but they never totally trusted Mr Pattemore themselves.

Lynda had split from their father, Italian taxi driver Nunzio Peluso in 1994, and it had just been the three of them until she met Mr Pattemore ten years later.

Robbie, left, and Michael Peluso, pictured with mother Lynda Bellingham when they were children, have hit out at stepfather Michael Pattemore for 'disrespecting their mother's memory'

Michael said it was natural for them to be suspicious of the new man in her life and they were torn between their dislike for him and the fact he made their mother happy. 

He explained: 'When we first met him we didn't trust him and thought she could do better, what sons wouldn't think that?' 

'We were at an age where we were going out more and having girlfriends so we thought our dear mother did deserve the right to find someone and be happy, we wanted that for her. 

'You are torn, do you trust your instinct or do you go "no she's happy"?'

They believe when she left everything to her husband in her will it would have been because she 'thought what she was doing what right by us', perhaps by avoiding inheritance tax.

But they say her wishes have not been honoured as they have not been given 'security'.

Robbie adds that along with talking through what they are owed with Mr Pattemore, they also want to ensure they don't have to 'wake up to more articles about her'.

Michael, left, and Robbie, right, claim they have been disowned by Mr Pattemore privately and are challenging him over their late mother's will

The brothers said they to 'get round a table and mediate' with their stepfather as soon as possible.

In a statement read out on Mr Pattemore's behalf by Phillip Schofield, the widower said he was not publicly commenting on the case yet.

He said: 'The only comment I will make is, we don't have probate yet and when it's released that is when I will make my comment.'

Phillip added: 'So obviously saying that, he hasn't got probate, he's saying that he hasn't got access to the assets yet so none of the money we've apparently seen him spend could have come from there.'

The brothers said they chose to speak out on television to put across their situation 'the right way and with dignity' after 'umming and ahhhing' over whether to go ahead.

They said they were surprised by how many other people have since contacted them to say they have had similar experiences following a family bereavement. 

They urged people to be brave and discuss what they want to happen when they die to avoid rifts.

Robbie said: 'Make sure you talk, there are a few times we tried to but we were never sat down and explained to about what was in the will. I would have like to have done that with my mother rather than months after she passed away.' 

Lynda, left, married property developer Mr Pattemore, right, in 2008 and left everything to him in her will

The brothers previously gave an interview to the Mail On Sunday in which Michael said: 'This isn't about money, it's about the fact that he's got control over everything my mother worked for her entire life, and we know that's not what she wanted.'

Throughout their childhood, Lynda was the 'nation’s favourite mum' too, thanks to the Oxo adverts in which she played the loving wife with a hint of a cheekier side. 

The ads began in 1983, the year Michael was born, and the role would go on to last 16 years. 'She was a fantastic mother,' says Michael. 

'Even when her career wasn’t going so well, she struggled so that we could go to great schools. And although the problems in her relationship with my father have been well documented, he’s always been a supportive, loving dad to us, too.'

Lynda had been alone for a decade by the time she met Pattemore, who ran an estate agency on the Costa Brava. 

Seven years her junior and with a jack-the-lad charm, he swept her off her feet. At the time, Michael was 21 and Robbie 16; both old enough to realise their mother deserved a loving relationship.

Naturally, they became concerned when they learned Pattemore had been jailed for 21 months in 1998 after luring unsuspecting investors into a financial scam.

Lynda was well known throughout the UK for playing the mother in the Oxo adverts, pictured, in the 1980s and 1990s

When the couple married on Lynda’s 60th birthday in 2008, her sons did not attend the ceremony. 

‘We felt awkward for our dad, who never stopped loving Mum,’ says Robbie. ‘We went to the party afterwards, though, to wish them the best.’

It was a terrible shock when Lynda was diagnosed with bowel cancer in July 2013 and rapidly became very ill. 

‘I was touring with her in Calendar Girls and I remember her having these terrible pains in her chest,’ says Michael. 

‘When she got the diagnosis of bowel cancer, we were stunned. At first, she seemed to be responding well to the treatment, and she was so positive. But then it started going wrong very quickly.’

It is all the sadder that the current ugly family situation was provoked by Lynda’s own will, in which she left everything to Pattemore. 

Why she would do this is a matter of contention, for it seems incomprehensible to her family and friends that she would not have made adequate provisions for her sons.

They say their mother wanted Pattemore to ensure they were looked after, yet aside from gifts amounting to £750 each, they have received nothing from him.

Instead, they say he told them the money was tied up in properties and impossible to access – something they find hard to square with the thousands he has spent on himself in the months since.

Michael says that at the beginning of his mother’s chemotherapy treatment, he made a point of talking to her about her wishes. ‘I told her it wasn’t about making sure we knew what she wanted,’ he says.

‘She said Michael Pattemore was rushing about getting the will sorted. She mentioned inheritance tax and trying to avoid it by leaving money to him for him to pass on to us later, but she said there would be trusts set up which ensured a certain amount for Robbie and me. 

'It was difficult for anyone to have a private conversation with her at that stage because he was always hovering around her.’

When Lynda eventually signed the will, it was Christmas 2013 and she was in hospital for an emergency operation to remove the tumour in her colon. 

‘She’d almost died and was on a lot of strong drugs when she signed it,’ says Michael. His mother died in October 2014, aged 66.

Lynda’s funeral was attended by showbusiness friends, including Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and writer Lynda La Plante.

The boys assumed that, in time, Pattemore would come to them with a copy of Lynda’s will, but months passed with no word and they realised they would have to ask for it. In February 2015, after their aunt intervened, Pattemore agreed to share it with them.

Mr Pattemore pictured carrying Lynda's coffin with her children at her funeral in Crewkerne in November 2014

Michael says: ‘He sat me down and instead of giving it to me, he read it. He said, “This sum is to be split between you and Robbie, and another sum is to be split between you, Robbie, Bradley and Stacey,” who are his children. 

But he added, “Everything’s been left to me, so it will go to you when I decide.” I was sitting there crying, thinking, “Oh God, no.”’

Robbie adds: ‘When he read it to me later, he actually chuckled and tried to make a joke, saying, “So you’d better not do anything to annoy me.” 

'He obviously realised how awkward it was that he’d effectively said he now had control over everything my mother had worked for her entire life.

‘It was all handled so badly. If they’d both sat us down and talked us through their plans before she died, it wouldn’t have been such a shock. 

'Honestly, though, I don’t know if she really understood what the outcome would be.’

Michael says: ‘Within a few months of Mum’s death, he’d been to Dubai three times, to Peru, to Canada to see where Mum was born and on a round-the-world trip for eight weeks. 

'He also went to Dublin for a hair transplant and he bought himself a brand-new Chevrolet Corvette, despite already driving a brand-new Range Rover my mum had bought him.

‘He hardly made a penny the entire time he was with my mother – it was all hers.

‘We started to wonder if he was rubbing our faces in it.’

The family pictured at a happier occasion at Buckingham Palace when Lynda received an OBE

Less than four months after Lynda’s death, Robbie says he received a call from Pattemore asking if he objected to him bringing a woman home that evening.

‘He described her as his girlfriend,’ says Robbie. ‘I was shocked, but I didn’t feel I could say anything as it was his home.

‘This woman, who was Scottish, was there when I arrived home and he spent the night with her in our mother’s bed, surrounded by photographs of her with him and with us.’

Last June, Michael accompanied Pattemore to a charity party where he says he witnessed his stepfather’s attempts at womanising first-hand. 

‘He was taking women’s numbers in front of me,’ he says. ‘It really upset me.’

A month later, Pattemore gave an interview which left Robbie deeply distressed. 

In it, Pattemore called Lynda ‘irreplaceable’ and said: ‘Some men take a partner within months of their wives dying, but that’s not going to be me.’

Robbie says: ‘It was disgraceful. Give interviews about your grief, if you must, but don’t lie so blatantly. 

'It’s so disrespectful, not just to my mother but to all the people who believed in the story of their relationship.’

When Michael told Pattemore he and his brother were considering contesting their mother’s will in court, Pattemore insisted he was planning to buy a house to convert into flats so he could give one each to the brothers.

Lynda, left and right, started her acting career in the 1970s and went on to be a regular presenter on ITV's Loose Women

But by last August, having seen no sign of any financial help from Pattemore apart from gifts of £750 to each of them, and the payment by him of Michael’s car insurance, they felt the time had come to seek legal advice about their predicament.

‘We’d tried to talk to him, but he never gave us any evidence he was going to do the right thing by us,’ says Michael. ‘We felt we didn’t have a choice.’

While Pattemore was on his round-the-world trip, Robbie received a text message from Pattemore that triggered the exchange that was to be their final contact.

‘He said I would have to move out, because he’d decided to move to Somerset and wanted to rent out the flat. 

'I don’t think being asked to leave my home less than a year after my mum had passed away constitutes looking after her boys.’

Pattemore appeared on the Loose Women show – where Lynda had been a regular panellist – and said Robbie had decided to move out. 

The son counters: ‘That’s not true. I didn’t want to leave my home. I wasn’t given a choice.’

Lynda pictured with first husband, producer Greg Smith, whom she married in 1975 and divorced a year later

He moved his belongings to his father’s modest two-bedroom flat. He and Michael live there with their father today.

Robbie says: ‘When I left I took some pictures from the walls of Michael and me when we were kids, along with our family photo albums. 

'I knew it was our last chance to save our memories. When our stepfather arrived back, he sent me a string of angry messages. 

'He asked why I’d taken the TV from my room, which I’d thought was a gift.

‘And he said, “You’ve taken every single photo album. I use those for press”, which I think says it all. He’s not even in any of them – they’re from our lives before we even knew he existed.’

Michael and Robbie hired the legal firm Withers to contest their mother’s will. The firm has agreed to represent them on a no-win, no-fee basis.

After 18 months of anguish, they feel they have been left with no option. Michael says: ‘Our stepfather has everything, and if he wants to spend it all or lose it on bad investments, he can. 

There’s no way Mum understood that when she signed it. She was naive and trusting, and she was on a lot of strong drugs when the will was made. I don’t blame her for it.

‘I think deep down she knew the arrangements she’d made weren’t right, but I don’t think she wanted to confront her impending death. Who does?’

Lynda married Nunzio Peluso, pictured with son Michael, in 1981 but they divorced 15 years later in 1996

Although Michael and Robbie have inherited their father’s Italian looks, they exude the warmth and charm which made their mother so popular. 

However, the strain they have been under for the past 18 months is palpable.

‘We’ve been through hell,’ says Michael. ‘Neither of us has been sleeping well and the stress of what’s been happening with our stepfather has prevented us from grieving properly.

‘We knew what she wanted for us – she told us many times she wanted to buy each of us a flat.

‘We’ve been hoping to mediate with him. We’ve given him plenty of chances to sit down together and work something out, but he’s ignored every single letter our lawyers have sent.

‘We’ll go to court if we have to, because we need to stand up for our mother and what she wanted.’

The brothers say that their father has given them unwavering support. However, he was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer, so their fears for him have added to their burden.

They hope people will take from their experience the need to be absolutely clear about their wishes after death.

‘Don’t just make a will, write a letter of wishes and tell as many friends and family members as possible what you want,’ says Michael.

‘Don’t make the mistake Mum made. She would be devastated if she knew what we’d been through since her death. Knowing how much she loved us, that’s the saddest thing of all.’

Michael Pattemore declined to comment on the claims made by the brothers at the time the Mail On Sunday ran their interview.