Post-mortem of comedian who died penniless

Freddie Starr died of heart disease, a post-mortem has determined.

The 76-year-old comedian was discovered by a carer at his home on the Costa Del Sol on Thursday.

Dr Sebastian Diaz, director of Malaga's Institute of Legal Medicine, which carried out the post-mortem, told reporters: 'Freddie Starr's death .. was the result of a natural process, and specifically an ischemic heart disease.' [One which causes a restriction in blood supply] 

The comic suffered a major heart attack in April 2010 and underwent quadruple heart bypass surgery.

It has been reported that Starr died penniless and faced being made homeless over £500,000 owed to a woman who accused him of sexual abuse.

The former I’m A Celebrity star lost a £1million libel case against Karin Ward, who claimed he had put his hand up her skirt when she was a teenager.

He sued her for libel after she said she felt 'horribly, horribly humiliated" by the  comic – but a judge found in her favour in July 2015, leaving him with a huge bill.

And in 2017, her lawyers secured an order for for £380,000 plus almost £115,000 in interest on the Costa townhouse where he died, which could have forced him to sell up.

Starr was found dead at the property by a carer on Thursday afternoon, slumped in front of the TV.

Fellow comics paid tribute with Bobby Davro calling him 'the funniest man I have ever seen' and Jim Davison calling him 'the greatest'.

Starr became famous on the talent show Opportunity Knocks and went on to front  a number of his own 1990s TV shows. His appearances on An Audience With Freddie Starr in 1996 and Another Audience with Freddie Starr in 1997 were especially heralded.

In 2011 he appeared on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!, just a year after recovering from quadruple bypass surgery, but withdrew for health reasons.

The comic was also the subject of one of the best-known tabloid headlines of all time,  The Sun’s 1986 story 'Freddie Starr ate my hamster’ – an untrue anecdote placed by the since-disgraced PR guru Max Clifford

Starr himself was investigated for historic sex crimes as part of Operation Yewtree, but no charges followed. The investigation took its toll and he said it made him consider suicide.

In an interview with the Daily Mail after that ordeal, he said: ‘I’m not long for this world. I rarely go out because it’s hard to walk....  I’m just going to get on a plane and go to Spain, the place I love, and this is where I’m going to die.’

Published: 11 May 2019