Del Boy never marries. He has had many girlfriends, a fact that is the subject of numerous sarcastic comments by Rodney. He finally meets his partner Raquel Turner (whom he calls his "significant other") in the 1988 special "Dates". Del's mother Joan dies on 12 March 1964, apparently after a long string of illnesses. His lazy father Reginald leaves three months later (on Del's 16th birthday), taking most of their money and even Del's birthday cake. This leaves the teenage Del as the family's sole breadwinner, looking after his grandfather and Rodney, his half-brother who was born around thirteen years after him
Raquel Watts the intervening years. Lancashire and Kennedy were the only cast members to appear in Raquel's return episode, marking the first time the programme had featured just two characters. It remained the only two-hander episode of the soap for seven years, until a 2007 episode featured only mother and daughter Deirdre (Anne Kirkbride) and Tracy Barlow (Kate Ford). Raquel was well received by critics, deemed by Banks-Smith to be "the jewel in the Rovers' crown". She called Lancashire "one of the bright particular stars of "Coronation Street"", writing that Raquel, "as is the strange way of stars, shines bright long after