How Long Was Cilla Black Married to Bobby Willis? When Did Cilla Meet Bobby?

Cilla Black was married to her manager, Bobby Willis for 30 years until he passed away from lung cancer in 1999, aged 57, in footage filmed by Simon in 2002, Cilla says: “it’s hit me, Bobby isn’t coming back, he’s gone”.

After the death of Black’s manager, Brian Epstein, Willis took over her management duties and over the next 30 years, developed her popularity with television family audiences, and helped Black to become the highest-paid female presenter on television.

To please her Catholic family, the couple were granted a dispensation to her marriage blessed on March 6, 1969, at St. Mary’s Church in Liverpool’s Woolton suburb.

On October 23, 1999, at the age of 57, Willis died of Lung and liver cancer at the Royal Free Hospital in London. His funeral service was held on November 1 at Saint Mary the Virgin Church in Denham.