Dennis Waterman's second wife Patricia Maynard has revealed that the star died at his home in Spain following a two-year battle with lung cancer.
His ex-wife Patricia confirmed that he had been battling cancer secretly for two-years.
Speaking to Mail Online, she confirmed: "I'm terribly sad that he's gone but I'm really pleased that he did not suffer and died peacefully.
"He had lung cancer and was really quite poorly for the last couple of years. The girls are very upset."
She went on: "The years that Dennis and I were together were happy. Obviously, it didn't work out but lots of marriages don't work out for whatever reason.
"But I'm so glad he had found the right woman at the end. I think he was very happy with Pam and she was with him when he passed."
The actor, who was best known for his roles in television shows Minder, The Sweeney and New Tricks, died on Sunday afternoon with wife Pam at his side.
A statement said: “We are deeply saddened to announce that our beloved Dennis passed away very peacefully in hospital in Spain.”
“The family kindly ask that our privacy is respected at this very difficult time.”
The actor had most recently hit screens in the Mark Lamprell directed film Never Too Late as Jeremiah Caine, starring alongside James Cromwell, Shane Jacobson, and Jacki Weaver.
The film sees four former prisoners of war who famously broke out of their prisoner of war camp during the Vietnam War reunite in their twilight years for another daring mission: to escape a nursing home.
The group are all residents of the same retirement home for returned veterans, where they are not allowed to leave under the Mental Health Act.
Waterman found fame in his teens in William, the BBC's adaptation of Just William, and became one of the best-known faces on British television in the 1970s when he played Det Sgt George Carter opposite John Thaw in ITV's police drama The Sweeney.
He enjoyed more success in Minder from 1979 to 1989 as Terry McCann, the bodyguard and partner to George Cole's wheeler dealer Arthur Daley.
Waterman went on to star in the comedies On the Up and Stay Lucky, before another popular and long-running role as another Cockney detective in New Tricks, which ran from 2003 to 2015.
