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 of the show's best-loved characters in the 1990s." Raquel had a celebrity fan in Cliff Richard, who admitted in the 2000 documentary "40 Years on Coronation Street" that he once dreamed of being cast in a walk-on role, rescuing Raquel from Curly and marrying her himself. Raquel has become a notable facet of Lancashire's career. In 2001, "The Guardian" Gareth McLean stated that while she has avoided being typecast, Raquel "may be the role for which she is best known". Fellow "Guardian" writer Paul Flynn observed in 2004 that Lancashire is "assured her place in the national psyche" because of