Sir Bruce's love life: Three wives, many affairs and a happy third time lucky marriage

Not only did his list of conquests include two Miss Worlds and a Page Three girl, he was a self-confessed connoisseur of beautiful women.

But despite two divorces, six children and more than one extra-marital affair Sir Bruce’s private life was remarkably free of conflict, especially in later life.

He was in his mid-20s when he met his first big love, Penny Calvert, at the Windmill Theatre in London.

They became a song and dance double act before marrying in 1953. The marriage lasted almost 20 years and they had three daughters: Debbie, Julie and Laura, but it was far from a happy union.

They had dreams of stardom but the big money bookings in exotic locations never materialised.

Eventually Bruce went solo and Penny became his assistant but as the years went by she longed to return to the stage and resentments festered.

By 1964 their marriage was in deep trouble and Bruce himself admitted in his own mind he was “a single man”. He even moved into a bachelor pad in London. 

He was travelling the country and abroad as his career started to take off, while his wife lived with the children in north London.

It was around this time Bruce embarked on an affair with beauty queen Ann Sidney who, at 19, was nearly young enough to be his daughter.

It almost killed his career and nearly killed her.

They kept their romance secret, but just hours after she was crowned Miss World a picture of him kissing Ann on the cheek was splashed across the front pages along with a story of the affair.

Despite mounting pressure they managed to keep the lid on the rumours whilst conducting an illicit romance, but his family-man image was tarnished.

When the pair flew to South Africa in 1965, where Bruce was booked to perform in a variety show, the cracks began to deepen. 

One night while alone in her hotel room the young woman overdosed on drink and pills.

That spelt the end of the affair and Ann moved to Los Angeles where she became an actress while Bruce went back to his unhappy marriage.

In his autobiography Sir Bruce put many of the problems down to the fact that he did not feel sexually mature until he was in his 30s.

Having spent his younger years dreaming of bedding the world’s most glamorous women and failing, his new-found fame gave him access to any woman he wanted and he was not about to pass up the opportunity.

One such chance came in the voluptuous guise of the singer Kathy Kirby, a star dubbed as Britain’s Marilyn Monroe.

They began a passionate secret six-month love affair after appearing in cabaret together at The Savoy in London.

But she was under the control of a Svengali-like manager, Bert Ambrose, who became insanely jealous.

The romance was doomed and eventually Bruce agreed they should stop seeing each other. 

In later years Kirby revealed he had proposed marriage. She blamed the affair with her “one true love” for wrecking her showbusiness career and she died a recluse.

After putting his flings with the two young starlets behind him Bruce returned to Penny but it was a disastrous decision.

Now the “other woman” in their marriage was stardom. More than anything he craved fame.

His wife and children were something that could, if allowed, get in the way of that goal but by the mid-1970s he was at the top of the tree and by his own admission the female attention was hard to ignore.

He and Penny were living separate lives, though still married.

Asked about being promiscuous he admitted he had “taken advantage” of his celebrity status, but added “I don’t think I was too awful.”

He later put the failure of his first marriage down to his “prodigious appetite for work”.

Things changed in 1971 when Forsyth launched The Generation Game on the BBC with former Bunny Girl and glamour model Anthea Redfern.

They had originally met at a “Miss Lovely Legs” competition and when she auditioned against 52 others she was his first choice to work alongside him on the Saturday night TV quiz show.

They soon began an affair and married on Christmas Eve 1973, five months after his divorce from Penny had come through.

The decree nisi marked the start of many years as bitter enemies – a situation that would last until he and Penny had “a tender reconciliation” in later life.

Sir Bruce was married to his glamorous second wife for six years and the couple had two daughters, Charlotte and Louisa. 

But this was not to be his happy-ever-after and they divorced in 1979, on the grounds of Anthea’s admitted adultery with another man.

Now into his 50s, Forsyth did not expect to marry again but in 1980 he was asked to judge the Miss World competition. 

Once again he fell for a beautiful woman. He saw the 1975 Miss World, Wilnelia Merced from Puerto Rico, across the table.

“Who is she?’ he asked.

“She looks like a South American princess. She’s absolutely gorgeous.”

Despite her being 31 years his junior romance grew and they were married in New York in a snowstorm in 1983.

Three years later their son, Jonathan Joseph (“JJ”), was born. In his final years his two ex-wives became part of a close-knit “extended family” and much of the credit for that went to Wilnelia.

In 2013 it was revealed he had been nursing his first wife as she battled with dementia.

Sir Bruce was a frequent visitor at the Kent care home that Penny moved to in 2008.

He was said to be determined to keep her involved in family life and she was a guest at her ex-husband’s 80th birthday party that same year.

Penny also attended a special Mother’s Day party at Sir Bruce’s Surrey home in 2009 alongside Wilnelia, all of his children, eight of his nine grandchildren and two great grandchildren. Anthea Redfern telephoned to offer her good wishes.

Daughter Julie, who became a singer, said: “We stood in a line for a photo and as I glanced around me, at my sisters, my half-sisters, half-brother, step-mother and mother, it struck me that this was probably my father’s greatest achievement.

“To have three wives and six children who adore him and get along without acrimony, rows or bitterness, is extraordinary.

“We are like a huge, extended family. When we arrived, he gave the women a bouquet of flowers. It was so typical of Dad.”

Sir Bruce said that the success of his third marriage was partly down to his age and his past experiences.

When he was asked about marriage the TV legend admitted: “There are always temptations. Whether you take them or not is up to you. It depends how happy your private life is.”