Blake: 'I Lied About Having Cancer'

LATEST: Actor Robert Blake yesterday (03OCT05) admitted he was "not entirely" the cancer victim he had claimed to be in order to persuade former wife Bonny Lee Bakley to abort their love child.

The BARETTA star is accused of the wrongful death of his spouse in a civil case brought by Bakley's adult children, after he was acquitted in a criminal trial in March this year (05).

But prosecutors at the Burbank, California court, hope to prove the veteran actor's testimonies are riddled with inconsistencies.

The New York Post reports proceedings concentrated on his fake claims of colon and prostate cancer in 1999 to emotionally blackmail Bakley into giving up their unborn child.

The star admitted he made a $250,000 (GBP138,800) offer to the same end. Bakley went on to give birth to their daughter Rosie in June 2000.

The Bakley family's lawyer ERIC DUBIN read transcripts of a recorded phone conversation between the couple in 1999, when the actor invented a sob story about the pain his supposed cancer was causing him.

Blake conceded, "I could have easily said that," but when asked directly if he had suffered from the terminal illness, he admitted, "Not entirely."

The star denies responsibility for Bakley's fatal shooting in his car outside a Studio City, California restaurant in May 2001.