A rare and poignant insight into Tom Jones and Linda's marriage

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Jones was announced to the world as a single 22-year-old miner in 1965
Friend says from that moment on, his wife Linda - who was initially kept secret - 'felt as though she should not exist'
Rarely leaves their Beverly Hills mansion and has become agoraphobic
Tom talks about his love for her since they met aged 12 in autobiography
Book has no references to high-profile affairs, humiliating wife of 50 years

Published: 17:24 EST, 9 October 2015 | Updated: 05:16 EST, 10 October 2015

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When Tom Jones was introduced to the world by manager Gordon Mills in 1965, the big-voiced singer with animal magnetism was presented as ‘22, single and a miner’.

He was, in fact, a 24-year-old married man with a seven-year-old son, and had never been down a coal mine in his life.

Eventually, the truth came out, and wife Linda, a slender young woman with pixie-cut blonde hair, gave a solitary Press interview.

She explained that, although the adulation of his fans made her uncomfortable, she loved her husband with a consuming passion.

When Tom Jones was introduced to the world by manager Gordon Mills in 1965, the big-voiced singer with animal magnetism was presented as ‘22, single and a miner’. He was, in fact, a 24-year-old married man with a seven-year-old son

Eventually, the truth came out, and wife Linda, a slender young woman with pixie-cut blonde hair, gave a solitary Press interview. She explained that, although the adulation of his fans made her uncomfortable, she loved her husband with a consuming passion

‘I feel alive when he comes though the door, whatever the time of day or night is,’ she said.

Since that moment, Linda — who knew Tom from childhood and started dating him aged 15 — has remained almost entirely silent.

He has played the tight-trousered seducer to the hilt, giving countless interviews about knicker-throwing fans and girlfriends, while she has stayed firmly out of sight.

She has never been seen at his concerts, and didn’t even join him at Buckingham Palace when he collected his knighthood in 2006. Even after he abandoned the dye and let his hair go grey, and announced that the knicker-chuckers had had their day, she still preferred to live anonymously and out of view - residing in solitary luxury at their home in Beverly Hills while he continued to tour the world.

Last year, for instance, he spent three months living in the Savoy Hotel in London while filming BBC 1’s singing contest The Voice, and then did a 45-date tour of America and Australia.

Tom Jones has played the tight-trousered seducer to the hilt, giving countless interviews about knicker-throwing fans and girlfriends

Linda stayed at home in their neo-colonial mansion in Los Angeles throughout. Tom Jones’s biographer, Sean Smith, tells me: ‘They have been married for more than 50 years, but probably have only spent ten years in each other’s company.’

Linda’s hobbies, we are informed by the few who have visited their home, are housework, watching TV and drinking champagne, all of which are quietly enjoyed in his absence, too.

She is, it is said, partial to a spot of vintage Dom Perignon and quintessentially British luxuries such as fish and chips or steak pie.

‘Linda has her housekeeper and gardener and she sees more of them than anyone else,’ says Smith. ‘She hasn’t flown in years and is unlikely to come back to the UK again.

‘When Tom is back in LA they are an elderly retired couple in their 70s — having gentle drives and enjoying reading in the sunshine and TV, like a million other pensioners.’

In contrast to Linda’s silence, Tom, 75, has lately been remarkably outspoken. Indeed, this week, in an interview to publicise his autobiography, he talked with brutal frankness about her mental and physical health, saying she had ‘lost her spark’ and was suffering from depression.

Describing Linda as agoraphobic, he added that she now needs a stair-lift to get upstairs, has the lung condition emphysema — presumably caused by her lifelong addiction to cigarettes — and has twice had cancer.

In other interviews he has said that she refuses to go out to eat, fearing she might be photographed.

He adds that she has declined his offer to get a hairdresser to tend to her at home, and that she doesn’t look like she used to in the old days.

Linda, middle, has never been seen at his concerts, and didn’t even join him at Buckingham Palace when he collected his knighthood in 2006. She and son Mark stayed out of sight

In one interview this week, he said they’re happiest when talking on the phone. ‘When you’re face to face with somebody, you realise that time has gone on, but when you’re on the phone we’re both young again. We haven’t aged on the phone. You’re not looking at one another, I’m looking at an old picture I carry around with me and leave by the bed.

She was a cut above me academically and a cut above me socially, too

Tom Jones

‘She says: “I don’t look like that any more.”

‘I say: “I know you don’t, but it brings back wonderful memories.”’

Jones’s former paymasters at the BBC, where he appeared for four years on The Voice, say that Linda wasn’t spoken of in their dealings with him.

‘He never, ever, ever mentioned her, or even alluded to having a wife,’ said a programme source. ‘Not once in all the hundreds of times we spoke.’

Why should this be? Jo Mills, who was married to Tom’s late manager Gordon, believes that Linda’s insecurities stem from that first big lie that he was single.

‘I think from the very beginning, Linda was made to feel as if she mustn’t exist in his life.

‘It is sad because she is a lovely person, very warm, and if only she had got that confidence initially, she would have been very different, I am sure. She always stayed very much in the background.’

Indeed, some confidantes have been told by Linda: ‘I never felt good enough to be Tom’s wife.’ It is a heartbreaking admission.

The unusual love story of Tommy Woodward and Melinda Trenchard begins in Treforest, South Glamorgan, when young Tommy developed a full-on crush on an elfin blonde girl at school when he was aged just 12.

At home, Tom does what she wants him to do. That is her time, he is hers to command and it is a necessary haven for both of them

Biaographer Robin Eggar

In his autobiography, Over The Top And Back, he tells of watching her walk up the hill to school and of her sometimes giving him a smile.

She was ‘a cut above me academically and a cut above me socially, too’, he notes. Her family owned cinemas locally and Linda was in the A stream while Tom, an undiagnosed dyslexic, struggled in the C and D streams. He left school at 15 and they started dating.

Linda married him shortly after her 16th birthday, in March 1957, and became pregnant. As he recounts in his new book, he fell in love with her and has ‘never had that feeling for anyone else . . . I don’t think you can fall in love more than once’.

It is stirring, deeply romantic stuff.

However, there are no references to his countless dalliances in his entertaining account of his career. You will also not find a trace of the fact that, long before he became famous, there were other women.

Describing Linda as agoraphobic, Tom said she now needs a stair-lift to get upstairs, has the lung condition emphysema — presumably caused by her lifelong addiction to cigarettes — and has twice had cancer

In Sean Smith’s biography, published last summer, a local girl named Gill Beazer tells a story of going to watch him sing with his band, the Senators, and of Tom dedicating songs to her from the stage.

They had a two-year romance which started in 1960 when she was 15 and he was 20. They never, she said, did more than kiss and cuddle, but she regarded him as her boyfriend.

After a few dates she was surprised when she bumped into him in Pontypridd, walking around town with his toddler son. ‘From the very beginning, he was not exactly Mr Faithful,’ says Smith.

The advent of fame, and the sometimes hysterical attentions of female fans, inevitably brought more opportunities for unfaithful liaisons.

He has never troubled to hide them — perhaps because they only added to his celebrity appeal — although surely they must pain his wife deeply.

Tom has explained that they have had an arrangement since the late Sixties, when Linda stopped going on the road with him and it has worked well. In his own words: ‘She doesn’t ask.’

Jo Mills, who was married to Tom’s late manager Gordon, believes that Linda’s insecurities stem from that first big lie that he was single, and she always felt as though she should not exist

At his peak, he was said to be entertaining up to 250 women a year on his ‘workbench’ — a euphemism for his backstage groupie room.

Some of these liaisons have become public in a way which is cruelly humiliating for his wife.

In 1999, just after his OBE was announced, a 21-year-old Stringfellows’ lap dancer came forward to say that they had enjoyed romps with ‘encore after encore’. Another conquest, Las Vegas student Cindy Montgomerie, claimed that the singer like to dip his private parts in Listerine mouthwash.

At his peak, he was said to be entertaining up to 250 women a year on his ‘workbench’ — a euphemism for his backstage groupie room

This year there was yet another kiss and tell — by Charlotte Laws, now 54, who said that she was seduced by the singer at 18, and lost her virginity to him.

In the early years, at least, Linda was not ready to look the other way. Tom’s first serious affair was with American soul singer Mary Wilson of the Supremes and their two-year romance was common knowledge.

Linda read in Disc magazine that Mary Wilson was in the UK ‘to see Tom Jones’. Knowing that he was in Bournemouth, she hired a minicab to take her to confront the lovers.

By the time she arrived, Tom had been warned his wife was coming, and had removed Mary and all traces of her from the hotel suite. There was, though, some food in the oven which Tom attempted to explain away.

His road-manager, Chris Ellis, said that the next morning, after sleeping with Tom, Linda started to weep. ‘When I think of that b**** lying on these sheets!’ she exclaimed.

Her anguish, though, did not stop Jones from his womanising. He had another long affair with Marjorie Wallace, a former Miss World, in 1976. They were far from subtle about it and were pictured together numerous times. Linda confronted him — and, as he has said on several occasions, hit him. He said: ‘I stood there and took it. She chinned me. When she let fly, Dai [his then minder] just left. I said: “Go ahead!” She punched and shouted.’

Eventually, Tom felt he had to end the affair and Marjorie took an overdose of pills — she says accidentally. How, then, can he assert, as he did this week, that he has no regrets because he ‘never hurt anybody’?

That was not the end of it. In 1989, model Katherine Berkery had his child. He denied paternity, but had to make a settlement. Linda said at the time: ‘I love him just as much as I ever did and he loves me.’

Biographer Robin Eggar explains: ‘Linda started distancing herself from his showbusiness life in the late Sixties and now appears to have no interest in it.

‘In part, that is self-protection. What matters is that he always comes home. For years, whenever Tom has stepped through the door of his home he ceases to be Tom Jones, superstar and sex symbol, and instead reverts to being Tommy Woodward, the boy Linda married 50 years ago.

‘At home, Tom does what she wants him to do. That is her time, he is hers to command and it is a necessary haven for both of them.’

As the singer said last year: ‘It’s as if I have two completely different parts of my life: on the road where I do concerts and what-have-you; and at home where I’m with her. But, you know, I don’t mind. Actually, in many ways, it rather suits me.’

He added: ‘She’s not as sexually motivated as she was. So I’m not bothered.’

They stick together, he explains, because they are from the same place, and understand each other, and there is a pleasure in that common ground. ‘How do you walk away from somebody that you get along so well with? What’s the point?’

He had another long affair with Marjorie Wallace, a former Miss World, in 1976. They were far from subtle about it and were pictured together numerous times. Linda confronted him — and, as he has said on several occasions, hit him

His biographer Sean Smith said: ‘They came from family backgrounds where marriage was something to stick with through thick and thin. Both their parents’ marriages ended when the husbands died. Tom’s parents were married 48 years until his father died in 1981. It was a generation where you didn’t get divorced.’

Nearly 20 years ago there was a serious blip after Tom reached a £50,000 out-of-court settlement after Katherine Berkery again took legal action to seek a bigger allowance for her son. This must have been a particular agony to Linda, who had been left unable to bear more children after a miscarriage.

She announced she was heading home to South Wales, and Tom bought her a 25-acre farm in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Tom said: ‘I love visiting Wales, she loves living there . . . Being married stops me from being really stupid with some young girl and regretting it six months later.’

In the end, though, she moved back to Los Angeles within the year and there she has stayed. She barely leaves the house. He says: ‘She’s quite reclusive. Even with the emphysema, she didn’t want to go to hospital.’

In an interview last year he said that she won’t go on a plane because of paparazzi.

They stick together, he explains, because they are from the same place, and understand each other, and there is a pleasure in that common ground

‘She is not crazy about the way she looks. It has always bothered her. She never wanted her picture taken or to do interviews — she didn’t want to be part of any of that. She is even more like that now.’

Fear of terrorists may also play a part in her refusal to fly.

At the time of 9/11, Linda was on a European tour with him — and on returning to America said she didn’t want to go on a plane ever again.

Now he is keen to relocate to the UK, but she doesn’t want to move. He said that the subject came up after she broke her arms tripping over a rug in their hallway.

She told him: ‘I was ready to move ten years ago when you didn’t want to.’ He added: ‘She says it would be great if she could just wobble her nose and magic herself there, like Samantha from Bewitched. It’s just the physical moving she can’t face because she doesn’t want to travel.’

And so Linda remains far from her roots, stuck behind those four walls, the prisoner who chooses to remain in a very luxurious cell. The fact that her husband, who is worth £190 million, is globally famous, is something which they both ignore in order to keep her happy. Because at home, anyway, she is the boss.