POGUES frontman Shane MacGowan left almost £5million in his estate, The Sun can reveal.
It is on top of the £730,000 he had already to his wife in his Irish will when he died aged 65 in November 2023.
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The Fairytale of New York singer’s UK estate was valued at £4,800,000, according to High Court documents obtained by The Sun almost three years on from his death.
It takes his combined fortune across both countries to more than £5.5million.
His will was revealed at the Brighton District Probate Registry on Wednesday, with his widow Victoria Clarke, 59, named as sole executor.
The two-page will, signed in Dublin on March 14, 2018, was the same will used for MacGowan’s estate in Ireland.
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It covers everything he owned “wheresoever situate”, which will now pass to Victoria.
Shane left his entire estate to his partner of over 30 years, who he married in Copenhagen eight months after he signed the will.
The will was drawn up before their wedding and still describes her as “my partner”.
His sister, novelist Siobhan MacGowan, was named to inherit everything if Victoria died before him.
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She would have been followed by his brother-in-law Anthony Hayes and then Victoria’s nephew Olan Clarke.
His Irish will, released in 2024, showed everything in his home country, where his estate was worth €849,733, also went to Victoria.
The Fairytale Of New York singer died from pneumonia at the couple’s home in Dublin in November 2023, sparking a wave of tributes from around the world.
One of Shane’s main sources of income was royalties from his 1987 duet with the late Kirsty MacColl.
The track came after a bet that MacGowan, who was born on Christmas Day, couldn’t write a Christmas hit, but is said to have earned him up to £250,000 a year.
It never topped the UK singles chart but has re-entered the Top 40 every December for the past two decades.
MacGowan was born in Pembury, Kent, in 1957 to Irish parents visiting relatives in England, and spent his early childhood with his mother’s family in Tipperary.
He formed The Pogues in London in 1982 alongside Jem Finer, Spider Stacy, and James Fearnley.
The band produced classics including Dirty Old Town, A Rainy Night In Soho and A Pair Of Brown Eyes before MacGowan was sacked in 1991 as his drinking issues spiralled out of control.
He had been in and out of hospital for months before his death after being diagnosed with viral encephalitis.
Thousands lined the streets of Dublin for his funeral procession, singing his songs as a horse-drawn hearse carried his coffin through the city.
The service at St Mary of the Rosary Church in Nenagh, Tipperary, was attended by Irish President Michael D Higgins, Bob Geldof, Aidan Gillen and Gerry Adams.
Nick Cave sat at a piano to sing A Rainy Night In Soho, while Glen Hansard and Lisa O’Neill led a rendition of Fairytale Of New York.
Pirates of the Caribbean actor Johnny Depp, who was best man at his wedding, read one of the prayers.
And U2 frontman Bono, who was in Las Vegas during the funeral, recorded a video reading from St Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians.
Victoria presented mourners with a book of his art and lyrics, a statue of Buddha, some teabags and a copy of Led Zeppelin II.
His sister Siobhan told mourners his veins “ran with Irish blood” and that Tipperary was his “spiritual home”.
President Higgins also hailed him as “one of music’s greatest lyricists”.
Victoria has said the couple never had children because “children would not have survived our lifestyle”.
The former journalist, who first met Shane in a London pub when she was 16, revealed she relied on counselling to cope with the agony of his passing.
She told The Irish Sun: “It has been extremely difficult. I’m not going to gloss over that.
“Shane’s sister (Siobhan) has been unbelievably supportive. She texts me every single morning.
“And I talk to Shane’s dad sometimes, too.
“The Samaritans are amazing. You would be howling and unable to function. It was that profound.
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“People had warned me years ago that the more time you spend with somebody, the more time you spend grieving them.
“It’s the price you are going to pay but you’re not going to say, ‘I won’t fall in love because I might have to grieve’.”
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