Sir Tom Jones famously had a tumultuous love life, despite his long-standing marriage to his loyal wife, Linda Trenchard.
The 83-year-old Welsh icon, best known for his hit song, Sex Bomb, has been open about the countless infidelities he committed during the heyday of his fame. Despite having been involved with Linda since they were childhood sweethearts of only 12 years old and eventually tying the knot five years later, the singer admitted to engaging in “hundreds” of illicit liaisons while maintaining their marriage.
The couple, who hail from the small town of Treforest in Pontypridd, welcomed their only child Mark, shortly after their wedding day. As the ’60s rolled around, so too did worldwide recognition with the booming success of his classic track It’s Not Unusual, catapulting him into the limelight in 1965.
While Sir Tom embarked on globetrotting stints, faithful Linda remained back home in Wales, caring for their son. However, the Welsh sensation was soon captivated by other women.
He shockingly confessed to romancing over 250 women annually at the pinnacle of his career, with a dedicated space set up exclusively for muses ranging from The Supremes star Mary Wilson to TV personality Charlotte Laws, reports the Mirror.
It was his illicit affair with erstwhile Miss World Marjorie Wallace that attracted scandal, as photos surfaced of them cavorting in Barbados and Las Vegas. The furore led to Wallace ultimately losing her crown.
When Tom realised Linda was about to discover his infidelity, he ended things with Marjorie and came clean about the affair. He recounted how his wife’s reaction was fiery: “I stood there and took it. She chinned me. She punched and shouted,” he shared with the Sunday Times in 2015.
Tom also has a lesser-known son from another affair. While touring in America, he had a brief relationship with model Katherine Berkery, which resulted in the birth of their son Jonathan in 1987.
DNA tests later confirmed Tom as the father, yet he has reportedly never met his youngest child and remained silent on the matter until 2008. At a press conference, he admitted to succumbing to temptation and suggested that Katherine had deceived him into the affair.
“It wasn’t something I had planned. If I had planned it, I would have done something more than just financially. But it wasn’t… I was tricked, really. I just fell for it,” he stated, as reported by Entertainment Daily.
Despite his history of infidelity, Tom and Linda remained married for 59 years until her tragic death from cancer in 2016. Following her passing, he paid a heartfelt tribute to his late wife, crediting her with helping him “keep my head above water”.
Speaking at the Pride of Britain Awards in 2016, he said: “You’ve got to carry on, you have to, if I don’t I’ll fold. So music and everything that goes with it is keeping me alive, it keeps me going. And that’s what she would want. She told me that. And so it’s giving me strength. She knew how much it meant to me.”
Since losing his wife, the former ladies’ man has ruled out finding love again, maintaining that Linda was his one true love. In a 2021 interview with Joe Wicks on his podcast, the singer shared his heartache, saying: “No, I’ll never love again. There was one love of my life, and that was Linda. I’m glad we had our lives together but I wish she was here now; we would be old together.”