Victoria Wood, renowned for her incisive humor that captured the quirks of everyday life, kept her personal battles largely hidden from the public eye. Behind the laughter and comedic genius lay a story of personal turmoil that is now coming to light.

The documentary “Becoming Victoria Wood” delves into the intimate challenges faced by one of Britain’s most cherished comedians. Although she exuded charm and humor on television, her private life, particularly her marriage, was fraught with complexities unbeknownst to her audience.

Victoria encountered magician and actor Geoffrey Durham in 1976, following her triumph in the New Faces competition. Their paths crossed at the Phoenix Theatre in Leicester, and she recounted their meeting as an instant bond.

“It was just one of those moments where you instantly connect,” she reflected. “Comedy can be a solitary endeavor without someone to support you.”

The couple wed in 1980 and had two children. Despite their seemingly joyful start, Victoria later revealed her hesitance about marriage, influenced by the dissolution of her own parents’ relationship.

In Let’s Do It: The Authorised Biography of Victoria Wood, she confessed: “I didn’t want to get married. He did. Every day he’d ask me to marry him.”

She once admitted she found sex stressful and disillusioning, and later said she felt like a “failure” when her marriage ended, a rare moment of emotional honesty from someone fiercely protective of her privacy.

When the pair eventually separated, their spokesperson issued a brief statement, saying the split was “entirely amicable” and that “no other parties were involved”.

Victoria died from oesophageal cancer in 2016, aged 62, many were surprised to learn that she left nothing to her former husband in her will.

Instead, she donated half of her £9.3 million estate to a charity set up in her name, a decision that has since been viewed by some as a final indication of how separate their lives had become.