CHARLOTTE Dawson today found comfort at her late dad Les Dawson’s statue.
The reality star, 31, has had a tough time recently after her fiancé Matt Sarsfield was exposed for sending “secret dirty texts” to another woman.
5
5
5
Former Swinton Lions player Matt, 32 – who has now moved out of the family home – is said to have sent another woman an intimate picture after she posted about going for a run on Instagram last month.
Emily Louise Hodgkinson, 34, said she was shocked to receive the image after meeting Matt through an ex-boyfriend who used to play rugby with him.
Emily told the Mirror: “I feel so sorry for Charlotte. How could he do that to her? I’d be mortified if a partner did that to me behind my back.”
But trying to find some comfort through her pain, she visited her late father Les’ bronze statue in Blackpool – which is the place Matt proposed four years earlier.
Read more on Charlotte Dawson
Sharing the moment today with her children, she posted the cute snaps on Instagram.
Charlotte was just a baby when Blankety Blank star Les died suddenly, leaving his second wife Tracy to bring her up alone.
She never really got to know her half brothers and sisters, Stuart, Julie and Pam, now in their 50s, amid a long-running family rift.
Les’s other children lost their mum, Meg, to cancer and struggled to accept Charlotte’s mum Tracy, who was 18 years Les’s junior.
A row over who would pay for the comedy king’s cremation service, after he failed to stipulate who would be liable for it in his will, made the situation worse.
Charlotte Dawson host son’s party hours after fiancé ‘dirty text’ scandal.mp4
Les told Radio 4 how Tracy saved his life when their love affair began, because he was drinking himself to death.
“I need to give affection and love,” he said, “because without that I wither.”
Having recovered from two previous heart attacks and prostate problems, he also said: “If I could give five happy years to Charlotte, I’d be content.”
He died two weeks later.
Despite being a tiny baby when her dad died, Charlotte says she has always felt a connection to him and has a tattoo of him on the back of her neck.
5
In 2003, when Charlotte was 10, her mum Tracy said: “He’s a vivid presence in her life, and when friends come to the house for the first time she always puts on one of his old television sketches on the video.”
In 2013, Charlotte told how the old films and images of her dad have helped her in tough times.
She said: “He kept everything from scan pictures to photos of mum in labour, the birth and all of us together all through the time we had before he died.
“Every time I got upset that he wasn’t there for a sports day or parents’ evening, they got me through.
“I feel lucky that I can see first-hand how much he loved me.”
5
Meanwhile, Charlotte and Matt started dating in November 2016 but split three months later before getting back together in December 2017.
She later told The Sun that she “couldn’t stay away” from him as they moved in together.
In September 2020, Matt proposed to Charlotte next to the statue of her late father, Les Dawson, who died of a heart attack aged 62 in 1993. The couple were already expecting their first child Noah.
Charlotte took to Instagram to make it clear her boys Noah, three, and one-year-old Jude are her main concern following the text scandal.
She wrote: “I’m extremely hurt, upset and disappointed about the situation.
“It’s hard enough going through something like this in private, let alone publicly. My only focus now is on my beautiful boys as they are my main priority.”
Who was Les Dawson?
Les Dawson was one of Britain’s most loved comics
Supposedly, according to his biography, Les played piano in a Parisian brothel – this was before his television debut on Opportunity Knocks in 1967 which helped launch his career.
On Opportunity Knocks, Les and his partner-in-crime, Roy Barrablough, played elderly women who were essentially authentic characters of the time but with extra pantomime features.
In the 1970s and 80s, Les hosted Listen to Les on BBC Radio 2, as well as a number of TV shows like Sez Les, The Dawson Watch and The Les Dawson Show.
Les’ last TV appearance was on Surprise Surprise, hosted by Cilla Black.
Les was married twice throughout his life.
His first wife, Margaret Dawson, was together with Les from 1960 until the day she died on 15 April 1986 from cancer.
They had three children together, Julie, Pamela and Stuart.
Three years later he married his second wife, Tracy, with whom Les was together with until his death.
They had one child together, Charlotte, who was born on October 3, 1992.
Les Dawson died on June 10, 1993.
He was attending a hospital in Manchester for a routine medical check-up with his wife, Tracy.
While he was awaiting the results he sadly passed away after suffering a major heart-attack.
