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
Del Boy (the age gap is stated as thirteen years in one episode, but Rodney’s year of birth is anywhere between 1958 and 1963 according to different episodes). He lives with Rodney, Cassandra, Raquel and their son Damien at door 368 on the twelfth floor of the fictional Nelson Mandela House in the Dockside Estate, Peckham, London. Before that, he lives in an old detached house in 39 Orchard Street with his mother, father and grandfather. His grandfather was an "out of work lamp-lighter, waiting for gas to make a comeback." In the episode "Sleepless in Peckham" Del gives the implication that