The cruise ship singer, from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, was married to Henrik Brixen before rekindling her relationship with her late fiancé, Eddie Rothe
(Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images)
Vocal powerhouse Jane McDonald is busier than ever. She fronted her six-part Channel 5 travelogue series, From Pole to Pole, and made a two-part documentary about heading to Blackbird Studio in Nashville, Tennessee, to record her new album, Living The Dream. She will also embark on an arena tour, kicking off in August.
But it hasn’t been an easy few years for the star. Jane was left heartbroken in 2021 when her fiancé, Eddie Rothe, died of lung cancer. His ‘low-key’ funeral took place under pandemic restrictions which Jane says ‘was a tragedy, because nobody could come to see him.’ Jane recently admitted she listens to voicemails from the late musician and wears his jumper to feel closer to him.
READ MORE: Jane McDonald makes heartbreaking admission about partner Eddie 5 years after deathREAD MORE: Jane McDonald says she was never in love with her husband Henrik Brixen
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Discussing how the loss of Eddie inspired some of the songs on her 11th studio album, Jane told Woman magazine: “It’s the first time I’ve written about Ed. ‘How can I move on?’ is all about hearing his voice on a voicemail and wearing his sweater, just to feel a bit closer to him, then asking, ‘How can I move on?’
“Another song, ‘Beautiful Soul’ – God knows how I’m going to sing that! I’m going to have to think, ‘I’m the channel for other people,’ and this is for them, to remember their loved ones. My shows are very emotional, but they’re full of laughter and disco as well. You get a bit of everything. It’s like therapy – and that’s just for me!”
Jane briefly dated Eddie in the 1980s when she was aged 17 before they lost contact and reconciled in 2008 on ITV’s Loose Women. The couple were engaged for 12 years before his death.
In January, she opened up about the reasons behind the tough decision to give up her home in Wakefield, Cleevethorpe House, despite pouring her time and efforts into renovating the five-bedroom property. She now lives in a smaller property in the same area.
She told MailOnline: “I found it difficult. There was too much history there. We all need peace in our lives, and I’ve got that now.”
Jane lives with her close friend Sue Ravey, who she met in her twenties. The duo appeared on Channel 4’s Celebrity Gogglebox together.
Jane said: “You’d be surprised at how much stuff you have. Seven skips later! I was ashamed of myself. You’ve got to let it all go. But Sue is great. She’ll ask me: “Why you holding onto this?” Take a picture of it and bin it.”
Jane recently opened up about her marriage to Henrik Brixen. She said she was never in love with him and described the decision to end their marriage as “the best thing he ever did”. Jane and Henrik divorced in 2003, following a five-year marriage during which he became her manager.
Despite the lengthy relationship, Jane, 62, has shared she was “the only one” who didn’t realise she had no feelings for the Dutch ship plumbing engineer. Speaking on the Table Manners podcast this week, the TV star said: “It’s really strange this, because I should have had the best time of my life. I just got to Vegas, but I knew my marriage was on the brink.
“Everybody could see it and was going, ‘that’s not gonna last’. I was the only one who didn’t see it. But he was a great guy, and he did his best, you know.”
She said, though, her split with Henrik was amicable but he struggled to “play the game” in the music industry as her manager. The cruise ship singer, from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, continued: “He didn’t understand that it’s all a game, our business, and you have to play it. I was a club artist, a cruise ship singer, which was like, we don’t allow this in our industry. And nobody thought for one minute that I would go straight to number one with that album (her first album), nobody.
“Not even the record company. It was a shock to everybody. And then my tour sold out massively, which was, you know, another learning curve.
“And I was learning the business with Henrik (her husband and manager at the time) along the way. So it was like, hang on a minute. This is not tallying up [..] but it’s a game, and you have to play it. And then I got dropped from my labels, and I thought, how hard can this be? So I did it all myself. You don’t realise that, every artist thinks they need a record company, and you don’t. You just need a bit of money.”
The former Loose Women panelist had previously shared in her 2019 autobiography that she started to feel “lonely” in her marriage, after Henrik ruled out the prospect of having children.
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