08 June 2024 , 20:00
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Tom Jones had a heartbreaking relationship with his loyal wife who stood by him through his multiple affairs.
The Sex Bomb hitmaker, 83, had a reputation as a womaniser during the height of his career, and confessed to having “hundreds” of affairs with women while still married to his beloved wife Linda Trenchard. The couple began dating when they were just 12 years old, and five years later, they were married. Just a few months after exchanging vows in the Welsh town of Treforest, Pontypridd, they welcomed their only child, son Mark.
Tom’s career went from strength to strength in the 1960s, and he was propelled to superstardom with the release of his iconic hit It’s Not Unusual in 1965. However, while the Welsh crooner jetted off around the world, his loyal wife Linda stayed at home in Wales with their son, and soon Tom began having multiple affairs with hundreds of women.
Tom and Linda wed in 1957 (Getty)He confessed to sleeping with more than 250 women a year during his heyday - and even had a separate dressing room on you to entertain his female guests - and was linked to Supremes singer Mary Wilson and TV host Charlotte Laws. But it was his fling with former Miss World Marjorie Wallace that landed him in hot water, as pictures of the couple holding hands in Barbados and Las Vegas prompted her to be stripped of her Miss World crown.
When Tom realised Linda was about to learn the truth, he called it quits with Marjorie and confessed to the affair, and revealed his wife was so furious she punched him in the face. “I stood there and took it. She chinned me. She punched and shouted,” he told the Sunday Times in 2015. “She’s the most important thing in my life. An unbelievable woman. Linda is the love of my life and she still is, even though she doesn’t look like she did. I don’t look like I did, either, but I try my best.”
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She stood by her husband despite his repeated affairs with hundreds of women (PA)Tom also has another son who he has rarely spoken about, as he was conceived during another one of the singer’s affairs. While on tour in America, the Delilah hitmaker had a fling with model Katherine Berkery, and she gave birth to their son Jonathan in 1987. DNA tests confirmed the Welsh singer was the father, but he has reportedly never met his youngest son, and refused to speak about him until 2008. During a press conference, he claimed he “fell for the seduction” and accused Katherine of “tricking” him into having an affair. “It wasn’t something I had planned. If I had planned it, I would have done something more than just financially. But it wasn’t… I was tricked, really. I just fell for it,” he said, according to Entertainment Daily.
Tom was heartbroken when Linda died in 2016 (Getty)Despite his repeated infidelity, Tom and Linda were married for 59 years until her heartbreaking death in 2016 from cancer. He paid a sweet tribute to his beloved wife following her death, and said Linda was the one who was helping him “keep my head above water”. He said at the Pride of Britain Awards in 2016: “You've got to carry on, you have to, if I don't I'll fold. So music and everything that goes with it is keeping me alive, it keeps me going. And that's what she would want. She told me that. And so it's giving me strength. She knew how much it meant to me.”
Since his wife passed away, former lothario Tom has ruled out finding love again, and said she was still the love of his life. Speaking to Joe Wicks on his podcast in 2021, the crooner sadly shared: “No, I'll never love again. There was one love of my life, and that was Linda. I'm glad we had our lives together but I wish she was here now; we would be old together.”