Tom Jones has been linked with numerous women throughout his life, but none held a more cherished place in his heart than his late wife, Melinda. Sir Tom and Melinda Rose Woodward, lovingly known as Linda, first met when they were just eight years old.
In his 2015 autobiography, Over the Top and Back, Sir Tom warmly recalls how she used to play marbles on the pavement. During a subsequent two-year battle with tuberculosis, a bedridden Tom fell deeply in love with his future wife, who would smile at him as she walked to school in their hometown of Treforest, south Glamorgan.
The then 12 year old was completely smitten. At the tender age of 15, Tom plucked up the courage to ask Linda out.
Two years later, they married, and soon after welcomed their first child, Mark.
Tom often spoke with profound respect about his wife, whom he always maintained was the “love of his life”. However, he also admitted to having hundreds of affairs – including one with Miss World contestant Marjorie Wallace, reports Wales Online.
When Linda lost her “short but fierce battle” with cancer in 2016, the It’s Not Unusual singer was deeply affected by the loss, and vowed to fulfil her final heartbreaking wish.
In a 2020 interview with BBC Radio 2, Sir Tom spoke with host Jo Whiley about his new album which opens with the track, I Won’t Crumble When You Fall, inspired by one of his last conversations with his lifelong sweetheart. Tom fondly recalled how Linda remained “the calmest person in the room” during her final days, while he and his son were like “gibbering idiots”.
She had one last piece of wisdom to share before she passed away.
Explaining the touching significance behind his opening song, Tom shared: “Myself and my son [Mark], we spent the last 10 days with her in the hospital in Los Angeles. I said, ‘Look Lin,’ and she said, ‘What do you think you’ll do with yourself now?’
“I said, ‘I don’t know whether I’ll be able to bloody sing, the words are going to get stuck in my throat’.
“She said, ‘You’ve got to. You can’t fall with me. I’ve got to leave but you don’t have to. Don’t crumble’.
“So when I heard the song I thought, ‘My God that’s it. I’ll do anything for you.'”.
He continued: “I’ll do anything for you. In the morning, when you call, in the morning I’ll wake when you call. I’ll do anything for you. But I won’t crumble with you when you fall’. She said, ‘You can’t crumble’, so that’s really for her.”
The couple had been married for 59 years and initially, Tom questioned whether he could carry on performing while grappling with his profound grief. However, he persisted, later admitting in a Facebook post that singing “really is my best therapy”.
