TV presenter and singer Jane McDonald has said the grief “never leaves you” as she reflected on the loss of her husband and mother.
In December 2018, the performer revealed on X, formerly Twitter, that her mother had died and in 2021 her partner Eddie Rothe died aged 67 following a battle with lung cancer.
On Friday, the 61-year-old appeared on ITV show Lorraine to promote her upcoming With All My Love 2024 Tour, due to start in October, which includes a song written in tribute to her mother.
Discussing her grief, McDonald said: “You have to find your way of dealing with it, it’s not easy, it never leaves you either.
“Everybody thinks ‘Oh, she’s back on track’.
“No, it never leaves you, I have to make a decision every morning what my day is going to be like.
“Because you can go that way (gesturing with her hands) or you can go that way and I choose to go the positive way and it’s not always easy and if you have a bad day that’s fine, have a bad day.
“But in general, now I look at my life and I think I’ve got a lot more good days in my life than I have bad days now so I’ve come on leaps and bounds and I think the music and touring again and getting back with my band and writing new stuff again, it’s given me such joy and a purpose.
“My purpose is to go out and entertain.
“And I think once you’ve found your purpose in life everything just comes together and I feel my purpose now is to get back on that stage.”
Reflecting on her time with Rothe, she added: “I had the most amazing 13 years with this man, and that’s what I think of, how lucky I am and how blessed I’ve been to have that time with him and know real love, so I’m blessed.”
McDonald and Rothe first dated as teenagers before rekindling their romance decades later after a chance meeting on the set of This Morning.
It was recently announced that McDonald would star in the West End panto Robin Hood, coming to the London Palladium in December 2024.
“I am really looking forward to it, it should be good fun,” she said on Lorraine.