Jane McDonald announces hiatus following death of fiancé Ed Rothe: ‘I’ve got to have a different life now’
Posted by  badge Boss on Sep 05, 2022 - 09:33AM
Jane McDonald is taking a step back from the spotlight (Picture: Getty/Rex)

Jane McDonald is taking a break from showbiz at the end of her current tour following the death of her fiancé.

The 59-year-old singer’s late partner following a lung cancer diagnosis.

Speaking to her fellow Loose Women presenter Kaye Adams, 59, on her podcast How to be 60, about his death, Jane explained: ‘I’m a lot better than when I was on Loose Women. I can talk about him now and just feel great that I had that amazing time with him.

‘And it’s funny, we should talk about retiring because he retired at 59. And said, I promise you when you get to this age, you’ll see a difference. And I have. So we had lots of plans.

‘And I think that’s part of grief as well is that you go through the normal grief and the terrible, terrible time and then you grieve the life that you thought you were going to have.

‘So, when he died, he took our future. So, I think that is, I’ve got to have a different life now. And that’s taken a bit of adjusting to, but I’ll get there. Because that’s what do, we get there.

Jane’s late partner Ed Rothe died in 2021 following a lung cancer diagnosis (Picture: Getty)

‘It’s a shock when your partner becomes ill. And it’s just a shock to your system completely. And I think it’s made me realise actually, how many summers have we got left. And I want to do so much.

‘I want to go on holiday, instead of filming one. I want to you know, I want to write, I want to be creative. I want to have time in my lovely home.

‘You know, and I want to be here for my family. You know, my, my niece is just about to have a baby. And we’re all very excited about that.

‘And I want to be around, I want to be around for them all just for a while to like sort myself out and then stop working as much as I do. Because I work constantly.’

Jane is putting herself and her desires first (Picture: Rex)

Jane also shared her plans to take a two-year break from touring.

‘I’m not touring next year or the year after, so you’ve got an exclusive there because they only think I’m only doing one year, but I’m now doing two,’ she said.

‘Because I want to have a bit of downtime, I’ll still be doing all the TV shows. And that’s great. You know, I love that.

‘But the touring I found now is harder than it used to be. And, and I’m thinking well, why? Why are you doing it, just have a bit of a break and see how you feel.’

Jane met Rothe, who was the drummer in The Searchers, in a club in Wakefield in 1980 and the pair embarked on a teen romance when she was just 17, however they split after a few months of dating. 

The couple did not see each other again until 2008, and quickly rekindled their relationship once more, with Rothe proposing the same year. 

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