Jane McDonald “felt sick” after “losing everything” earlier in her career.
Jane McDonald 'felt sick' after 'losing everything' earlier in her career
The 'Loose Women' star has detailed how getting everything back after what looked like a successful career in TV and selling out shows across the world - which led to the breakdown of her marriage to her ex-husband and manager Henrik Brixen in 2002 - has made her a much stronger and resilient person.
She had to move back in with her mother Jean when she was 40, after firing Henrik as her manager.
The 61-year-old television personality told OK! magazine: “I’ve had a few sticky moments, and I’ve taken a lot of risks in my life, but I don’t do fear any more. I’ve been there, I’ve seen it, I’ve done it. I’ve got the T-shirt, I’ve washed it, I’ve dried it – and then I’ve got another. [Back then] I thought, ‘I’ve had a chance at this [career] and it’s gone, but I’ll get it back.' ”
Jane has had several career highlights, including her 2010 sell-out date at the London Palladium and the BAFTA-winning ‘Cruising With Jane McDonald’ in 2017.
But the star has admitted losing her husband Eddie Rothe in in 2021 and her mother in 2018 were her “lowest” moments.
Jane said: “The two guiding lights in my life were Ed and my mother, and I suppose losing both of them so quickly together was the hardest thing I’ve ever been through.
"But I’ve joined a club of so many people who were in my position. I say to anybody now, ‘Don’t wallow for too long.’ [Grief] takes a while, and it will creep up on you when you least expect it, but if you can chase joy as much as you can, it’s allowed.
"You don’t have to feel guilt if you’re laughing. Because we do. We think, ‘I can’t possibly feel happy because I’ve lost them,’ but we have to live the life that they wanted for us. Otherwise, what was the point?"
The 'Let The Light in' author now finds solace in "celebrating" each piece of wisdom she learnt from her mother, and the "fantastic relationship" she had with Ed.
She said: “So I’ve taken every bit of wisdom from my mother - and she had lots of it - and all the love and all that fantastic relationship I had with Ed and I celebrate it now, I take them with me.
"It’s a way of accepting that you cannot change what’s happened, but taking all that with you and moving forward. Not moving on, because that means you’re leaving them behind, but moving forward with them in your heart.”
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