{"id":189061,"date":"2023-11-25T04:09:58","date_gmt":"2023-11-25T04:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsneednews.com\/?p=189061"},"modified":"2023-11-25T04:09:58","modified_gmt":"2023-11-25T04:09:58","slug":"jane-mcdonald-on-caring-for-her-dying-partner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsneednews.com\/lifestyle\/jane-mcdonald-on-caring-for-her-dying-partner\/","title":{"rendered":"Jane McDonald on caring for her dying partner"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u2018This is a celebration,\u2019 says Jane McDonald, despite the tears in her eyes. \u2018It\u2019s not a mournful thing. I haven\u2019t had a chance to celebrate his life, so here it is. I had 13 amazing years with that man.\u2019<\/p>\n
The singer and television presenter \u2013 one of Channel 5\u2019s biggest stars with her Cruising series, Christmas specials and one-off travel shows \u2013 lost the love of her life Ed Rothe to lung cancer\u00a0in March 2021 and the grief is clearly still strong, but then so is her gratitude.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018I think I had the best of him. I\u2019m glad I was privileged enough to have that time. I should be grateful for that.\u2019<\/p>\n
Jane stayed away from singing live for a while after losing Ed, who was 67, but now she\u2019s announcing the biggest tour of her career, headlining iconic venues like the London\u00a0Palladium and the Blackpool Opera House.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Called With All My Love, it will feature classic covers as well as some of the more personal songs she has written herself. She\u2019ll perform for fans who have helped her so much over the past couple of years with their countless messages of support.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Jane McDonald, 60, is one of Channel 5’s biggest stars with her Cruising series, Christmas specials and one-off travel shows<\/p>\n
\u2018They have been amazing and this is my chance to be with them again in person. It will be emotional.\u2019<\/p>\n
Ed died during Covid so his funeral was very low-key. \u2018I\u2019ll be able to make the kind of tribute to him I couldn\u2019t make then,\u2019 she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She threw herself into television work instead, travelling to\u00a0Japan, talking sense on Loose Women and even stepping in to host the British Soap Awards at short notice after scandal forced Phillip Schofield to step down.<\/p>\n
Now comes the big tour, but the sad irony is that it would probably not be happening if Ed was still alive as they had hoped to have retired by now.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018We made all these plans for the future we were going to have. We\u2019d paid the house off, looked after everybody we needed to and it was our time to be together. Then he died. That\u2019s when it hits you and you think, \u201cOh my God, all those plans. Why?\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n
It\u2019s clearly not easy for her to talk about Ed. \u2018I don\u2019t usually talk about this,\u2019 says Jane at one point, after struggling to get the words out. \u2018Do I have to do this?\u2019 Of course not, I say. We can stop. But after recovering her composure, she does have things to say. \u2018I don\u2019t mind talking about him, really. It\u2019s two-and-a-half years on.\u2019<\/p>\n
She\u2019s curled up in an armchair at a studio in Leeds, nursing a mug of hot water and still laughing at herself. Jane is 60 now but looks younger in sneakers, dark jeans, a navy shirt and a chequered over-shirt.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018You\u2019ve got to make a different life from what was planned, but they go with you. You move forward with them in your heart. This tour is happening because of Ed. He\u2019s probably thinking, \u201cGo on, you go for it.\u201d I have this ultimate joy in my heart, because he\u2019s still there.\u2019<\/p>\n
The pair first met in 1980 when she was 17 and working at a pub in her hometown of Wakefield and he came to play as the drummer with the band Liquid Gold. The relationship lasted 18 months but ended because Ed \u2013 known as Wally back then \u2013 enjoyed a rock\u2019n\u2019roll lifestyle in those days.<\/p>\n
They lost touch and Jane went on to work as a singer on ocean liners, where she was spotted by the makers of a BBC documentary called The Cruise in 1998. Down-to-earth, warm and witty, she also had an astonishing voice and a drive to succeed that made her a favourite with viewers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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In October and November 2024, Jane will be travelling the UK with her With All My Love tour, which she describes as a tribute to her late partner Ed Rothe<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019d love to make it, be rich and famous, so I can get my brother out the pit,\u2019 she said on camera. \u2018He works 12-hour shifts down the hole all day.\u2019<\/p>\n
Jane did just that, employing her miner brother Tony as her driver when her new fame translated into No 1 albums and more work in television.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even her wedding took place in front of cameras, when she married a ship\u2019s engineer called Henrik Brixen. He became her manager, although the marriage ended at the same time as the professional partnership five years later.<\/p>\n
\u2018Everything was falling apart around me,\u2019 she recalls. \u2018But I thought, \u201cHang on a minute. You are the common denominator here, sort yourself out.\u201d And that\u2019s what I did.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
The big shift was realising that every performance should be about the fans rather than herself, she says. \u2018It\u2019s about making them feel something. If they cry, if they laugh, if they feel something that night, then that\u2019s my job done.\u2019<\/p>\n
Gold records and sell-out tours followed, along with a screen career that made the most of her ability to get on with anyone, have a giggle and raise an eyebrow at the absurdities of life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There was even a BAFTA for Cruising With Jane McDonald, which she accepted with raucous laughter and a gleeful, \u2018Flippin\u2019 \u2019eck! Mum, look what I\u2019m bringing home!\u2019<\/p>\n
Jane has a bungalow in Wakefield where she lived with just her late mother Jean for many years. But then she reunited with her old boyfriend in 2008.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018I was getting my make-up done in the Loose Women studios and there he was on the monitor. The Searchers were bringing out a new album and he was playing with them. I said to Donna, our make-up girl, \u201cOh my God. I used to go out with him.\u201d She said, \u201cYou have to go and say hello.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018I said, \u201cHe\u2019s probably got a wife and kids and everything,\u201d and she said, \u201cThat doesn\u2019t stop you from saying hello.\u201d She dragged me out of the chair and up to the next studio and I knocked on the door and said, \u201cDo you remember me?\u201d Bang! It was like we\u2019d never been apart.\u2019 She smiles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Jane pictured with her late partner Ed Rothe in 2018. Rothe died of lung cancer in March 2021, during the Coronavirus pandemic<\/p>\n
\u2018He picked me up, swung me around, and everybody went, \u201cAww.\u201d And that was it. We were together from that moment.\u2019<\/p>\n
He proposed to her that Christmas Eve, although they never actually got round to getting married before he was taken by cancer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018It wasn\u2019t slow, because we didn\u2019t know. He had no symptoms. As daft as it sounds, I\u2019m thankful it was during Covid because I was there with him. Nobody else was. But that was the hardest thing. I had no nurses or doctors come in. I had to learn how to do it all myself.<\/p>\n
\u2018I had him at home as long as I could. Then I took him to the Wakefield Hospice, which is a beautiful place. I\u2019ll be forever grateful to them. I was with him all the time there.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
His funeral took place under pandemic restrictions. \u2018It was a tragedy, because nobody could come to see him.\u2019<\/p>\n
Now, though, she has the chance to share her feelings about Ed with her fans, in much the same way she did after her beloved mother died in 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018I wrote a song about her called The Hand That Leads Me and I was singing it on stage soon after she died. I turned around and saw my director had put up pictures of my mother on the screens behind me. I just went,\u2019 she says, miming tears.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018It was a beautiful moment. So no doubt there\u2019ll be pictures of Ed this time.\u2019<\/p>\n
I ask if she thinks it will ever be possible for her to find love again? \u2018Oh gosh. There\u2019s so much capacity for love. We must chase joy. I\u2019ll never say, \u201cI\u2019m never going to meet anyone else.\u201d But I\u2019m fine if I don\u2019t. I\u2019m fine because I\u2019ve got so much love anyway.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Jane in 1998\u2019s The Cruise, the show that made her a star.\u00a0Down-to-earth, warm and witty, she also had an astonishing voice and a drive to succeed that made her a favourite with viewers of the BBC documentary\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘And I\u2019ve got great friendships. I laugh a lot because of my friends and I\u2019m so grateful to them.\u2019<\/p>\n
Many of them are in Yorkshire. \u2018I love Wakefield. My friends and family are here and I\u2019ve got a nice house. I\u2019ve worked hard to get that and I love every brick. Recently I\u2019ve paid off the mortgage and when you get to that stage it\u2019s like, \u201cWow, I\u2019ve done it!\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n
Another sign of success was being asked to host the Soap Awards this year. \u2018I was at a wedding in Croatia and my agent rang and said, \u201cCan you get on a plane?\u201d And I said, \u201cNo. This is my first break in eight years.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘He said, \u201cIt\u2019s hosting the Soap Awards\u201d and I said, \u201cWhich plane do you want me to get on?\u201d I love the soaps. We had such a laugh, so I really hope I get that gig again.\u2019<\/p>\n
The organisers have since said the event will not return until 2025, but Jane proved that hosting a major awards show holds no fear for her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019m used to rebellious crowds. I\u2019ve worked Blackpool, love!\u2019 Why does she think ITV chose her? \u2018Auntie Jane, isn\u2019t it? Safe pair of hands. I\u2019m not going to muck up or say anything controversial and I\u2019ll be full of excitement. I got a new frock and everything.\u2019<\/p>\n
Her appearances on Celebrity Gogglebox have also been a hit. \u2018I said I\u2019d come on if I could bring my mate Sue. We\u2019ve had such a laugh and got such a response from people.\u2019<\/p>\n
Jane would rather be at home than at a glamorous party. \u2018I\u2019m really not showbiz. I\u2019m bread-and-butter Yorkshire. I\u2019m very quiet.\u2019 That\u2019s helped her deal with life after Ed, she says. \u2018I\u2019m happy with my own company. Everyone thinks I\u2019m drinking champagne in a club somewhere but I\u2019m in my bed with my Yorkshire tea, reading.\u2019<\/p>\n
She remembers being painfully shy as a child. \u2018I still am, a little bit. Mum saw something in me that I never saw. She took two jobs to send me to singing and piano lessons. I thank her every minute of every day for the gentle push she gave me.\u2019<\/p>\n
The tears are drying as she looks forward to being face to face with her fans again, singing for some of her biggest-ever audiences.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Every part of my life now is due to Ed and my mum and my dad, because without them I wouldn\u2019t be in this position,\u2019 she says, grateful, still grieving but glad of what\u2019s coming.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018I cannot feel anything but utter joy for the life I had with Ed, but also utter joy for the life I\u2019m still going to have.\u2019<\/p>\n