 |
| Melinda Rose Woodward pictured with Tom Jones in 1970 |
Sir Tom Jones's wife Melinda Rose Woodward dies
Lady Woodward has died in Los Angeles after a ‘short but fierce battle’ with cancer
Hannah Ellis-Petersen
Monday 11 April 2016 16.47 BST
Tom Jones’s wife Melinda Rose Woodward has died from cancer.
Jones had been married to Lady Woodward for 59 years. The pair had known each other from childhood and began dating at 15. She opted to stay out of the limelight when her husband first found fame in 1965, with hit song It’s Not Unusual.
A statement said Woodward, believed to have been 75, had died at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles after a “short but fierce” battle with cancer. She was surrounded by her husband and family who “have asked for privacy at this difficult time”.
Just last week Jones pulled out of a gig in Manila, the Philippines, due to a “serious illness” in his immediate family.
In his autobiography, Jones described how he first fell for Woodward after seeing her at school when they were both 12, living in the Welsh town of Treforest, Pontypridd. The pair married in 1957 shortly after her 16th birthday. Writing in his autobiography, Jones said he had “never had that feeling for anyone else … I don’t think you can fall in love more than once”.
But Jones had a notoriously difficult relationship with his wife, and admitted he had been unfaithful several times.
Speaking in 2015, Jones said his wife had “beat me up” after learning of his numerous affairs. At the height of his fame, Jones claimed he had sex with 250 groupies in a year and his reported liaisons included affairs with Mary Wilson, of the Supremes, and Marjorie Wallace, a former Miss World.
Woodward had suffered two previous cancer scares. Towards the end of her life, the Welsh singer said in several interviews that his wife had “lost her spark” and was suffering from depression and agoraphobia, rarely leaving their Beverly Hills home.
Woodward did not travel with her husband on his world tours or even come to Buckingham Palace when Jones collected his knighthood in 2006. She also stayed back in Los Angeles when Jones began filming as a judge on BBC talent contest The Voice in 2012.
“She is an unbelievable woman,” Jones told the Sunday Times magazine, prior to his wife’s death. “She’s the most important thing in my life. All the rest is just fun and games.”
Woodward and Jones had one son, Mark, 59, who also acts as the singer’s manager.
Sir Tom Jones's wife Melinda Rose Woodward dies
Tom Jones / We need to drop Delilah song for being too violent
Tom Jones says critics shouldn't take Delilah so literally
Q&A / Tom Jones
No comments:
Post a Comment