193:, but the following year, after she was arrested for assaulting a policeman, the Maltese authorities deported her, and she returned to Britain. She remarried, but her new husband Brian Wright was later also killed in a car crash. She entered a mental home to escape from her next husband Graham Ellison, who abused her during the four days in which they lived together; the marriage lasted 13 weeks. Her fifth and final husband, Gary Shaw, died of a drug overdose.
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faced difficulty in coping with the psychological effects of the money that Keith had won. Having no concept of how to manage and save money, she admitted that her spending was akin to a narcotics addiction. She came to feel distanced from the people among whom she had lived, who in turn could no longer relate to her, and she developed an ever greater longing for a much more affluent lifestyle.
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Keith
Nicholson won the football pools on 23 September 1961. His and his wife's lavish spending sprees (including purchases of expensive sportscars, fur coats, clothing, home appliances, jewellery and holiday trips) over the next few years quickly depleted their fortune. By her own admission, Viv
149:. As the oldest child, Asprey was expected to mind her younger brothers and sisters and scavenge for coal. Growing up in extreme poverty, she was not allowed to take up a scholarship that she had won to an art school. Having left school at age 14, she took work at the local
293:" ("Under the iron bridge we kissed, and although I ended up with sore lips..."). Another picture of Nicholson taken at Wheldale Colliery, Castleford, West Yorkshire was used on the German release of "Barbarism Begins at Home" and on the programme for the
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on 30 October 1965, Viv's fortune rapidly dwindled to nothing; banks and tax creditors deemed her bankrupt and declared that all the money, and everything that she had acquired with it, belonged not to her but to Keith's estate.
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In 1968, Nicholson won a three-year legal battle to gain £34,000 from her husband's estate, but rapidly lost it all by more uncontrolled spending, as well as by taxes, legal fees, unpaid bills and bad investments.
211:." After opening a short-lived boutique, she ended up penniless, and by 1976 claimed that she could not even afford to bury her fourth husband (they had broken up three years earlier) when he died.
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She made many unsuccessful attempts to regain both her public profile and her lost wealth, such as recording a song (titled "Spend Spend Spend", written by her brother) and appearing in a
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She became pregnant at age 16 and married
Matthew Johnson, but left him to marry her neighbour, Keith Nicholson, two years later. By 1961, she had four children.
109:; 3 April 1936 – 11 April 2015) was a British woman who became famous when she told the media that she would "spend, spend, spend" after her husband Keith won
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in 1979, Nicholson objected to the use of her image for the single's cover because of an expletive in the song's lyrics ("Spineless bastards all...").
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became serious during her wealthy years but continued for many years after she had lost all of her money. She eventually achieved sobriety.
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news stories for many years because of the couple's subsequent rapid spending of their fortune and her later chaotic life.
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tour. A photo of
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says that their song "Spend, Spend, Spend" by was inspired by Viv
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had previously borrowed a line from
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429:"'Spend, spend, spend' football pools winner, Viv Nicholson, dies aged 79"
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523:"This charming woman: why Morrissey and the Smiths loved Viv Nicholson"
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In 1978, Nicholson co-wrote an autobiography with
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152,319 (equivalent to £4,300,000 in 2023) on the
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A successful musical based on
Nicholson's life called
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A photograph of
Nicholson was used on the sleeve of
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Nicholson was born Vivian Asprey on 3 April 1936 in
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79:Keith Howard Nicholson (1954–1965)
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466:"Viv Nicholson obituary"
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100:Vivian "Viv" Nicholson
492:"What happened next?"
347:"What Happened Next?"
299:The Headmaster Ritual
255:Pinderfields Hospital
406:. BBC. 12 April 2015
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49:, Yorkshire, England
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216:Spend, Spend, Spend
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60:(2015-04-11)
36:3 April 1936
578:2015 deaths
573:1936 births
238:(who won a
209:Big Spender
567:Categories
476:2022-11-18
333:References
281:' single "
279:the Smiths
273:In culture
224:series by
205:strip club
198:alcoholism
139:coal miner
131:Castleford
125:Early life
47:Castleford
40:1936-04-03
314:The Slits
291:Still Ill
287:Morrissey
259:Wakefield
207:singing "
151:liquorice
147:asthmatic
135:Wakefield
74:Spouse(s)
66:Wakefield
534:13 April
503:13 April
410:12 April
404:BBC News
327:West End
267:dementia
143:epilepsy
90:Children
119:tabloid
38: (
263:stroke
174:Jaguar
164:Wealth
107:Asprey
240:BAFTA
191:Malta
133:near
536:2015
505:2015
412:2015
246:and
55:Died
29:Born
312:of
285:."
104:née
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111:£
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93:4
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