Emmerdale’s Leah Bracknell leaves most of £280k fortune to husband and daughters after tragic cancer death

FORMER Emmerdale star Leah Bracknell left most of her £280k fortune to her husband and two daughters, it has emerged.

Leah, who was 55 at the time of her death, sadly lost her battle with lung cancer in September 2019 – leaving behind her grown up daughters Lily and Maya, and husband Jez Hughes.

Probate records reveal that the actress – whose real name was Alison Bracknell – left the bulk of her £279,430 in her will to Jez and her children from an earlier relationship.

Leah first revealed back in October 2016 that she had been diagnosed with stage four terminal lung cancer.

Shortly after, a fundraising appeal to pay for experimental treatment in Germany hit its target of £50,000 within three days and Leah made no secret of her determination to fight the disease.

In August 2019, the former soap star confirmed she was in an immunotherapy clinical trial. but sadly she died in the September, with the news being announced on October 16.

At the time her manager said in an official statement: “It is with the deepest sadness that Leah Bracknell’s family confirm that Leah passed away in September, three years after her diagnosis with stage four lung cancer.

“They would like to thank all the public for their support and generosity which contributed to the extension and quality of her life over the past three years.

“Leah continued to embrace life and faced her illness with positivity. Many aspects of her journey can be found on her blog.”

Leah started her blog, Something Beginning With C, in November 2017 to document her experiences with the disease.

Leah was best-known for playing the role of Zoe Tate in Emmerdale for 16 years.

Her character became the first lesbian to feature regularly in a British soap when she came out as gay in 1993 – a year before actress Anna Friel’s first lesbian kiss in Channel 4’s Brookside.

Zoe was involved in a series of dramas in the Dales, including a three way catfight at her wedding, struggles with mental health, alcoholism, shooting dead her half brother and an affair with her brother’s fiancé.

Leah left the ITV soap in spectacular fashion in 2005, blowing up her former family home which she had been tricked into selling. She also had a number of theatre roles and appeared in other TV dramas