He may be a superstar and an icon to millions of fans, but notorious womaniser Tom Jones, on the eve of the launch of his autobiography, has made undignified comments about his ill wife in public which have drawn the ire of our columnist…
Last week, as Irish mental health charities and the World Health Organisation (WHO) publicised a range of activities and hosted events around the country promoting Mental Health Week, with this year’s theme being ‘Dignity in Mental Health’, I was glad nobody asked old fogey and 60’s icon Tom Jones to be their inspirational spokesperson; especially given his alleged negative, and in my opinion, extremely undignified, comments about his wife of nearly sixty years, Linda Jones.
You see Linda, according to quotes attributed to her aging and definitely not so sexy bomb of a hubby, “has had a depression since she was young,” and has “let herself go,” and “lost her spark,”, with Jones allegedly adding “she doesn’t look like she did, I don’t look like I did either, but I try my best.” Wow, bless your efforts Tom, and what a gleeful little pensioner you are; quick, someone hand him his mirth control pills please.
Now look readers, if these comments attributed to Jones are true, this pair may well be suited to each other; aesthetically speaking of course; I mean, after all, he has a fortune and she, ahem…has four chins; something which I might add, she is perfectly entitled to have instead of resorting to the extent of lifting, pulling and tucking of the kind undertaken by her plastic-fantastic hubby who has spoken openly in the past about his eyes, nose and chin jobs, leading me to think that perhaps now it’s time to have his motor mouth altered, because these days, when it comes to criticising his darling wife, his gigantic gob appears to be so rarely shut, planes could mistake it for a landing strip.
Mrs Jones, now reportedly living her life as ‘a virtual recluse,’ appears to have put up with quite a lot of her husband’s inexcusable and incredibly disloyal behaviour when he headed for the bright lights while she stayed behind to keep the home fires burning and raise their only son during his glory days. If the knicker magnet’s admission of having slept with “250 women a year,” at the height of his fame is to believed, I have to ask, is it any wonder the poor woman is unhappy?
What a crass, insensitive and horrible thing for any husband to say that his wife had “let herself go” –even in a private conversation – a comment which, by the way, could be construed as emotionally abusive behaviour. However, for a man to utter such tripe on such a public platform, as in to effectively ‘ugly shame’ the mother of their child, the woman they profess to love, is both brutish and savage behaviour.
I’ll be honest and say that, until I read reports about the boyo’s alleged verbal attack on his ill wife, I was in fact a minor fan. In my opinion the Welsh crooner has managed to constantly, ahem, swing the lead and reinvent himself, always staying hip and relevant; however for anyone to use their fame to emotionally throttle a loved one, to, in some way, manipulate their depressive illness, and, it appears in his opinion, their waning attractiveness, as an apparent attempt to promote an autobiography, (Jones’ latest tome, ‘Over The Top and Back Again,’ ghost written by Giles Smith and which Jones reportedly admits he has only ‘read fifty per cent,’ of), as a smokescreen for their appalling infidelity is, wounding at best, repulsive in the least.
Last week’s reported vile statements made me wonder if this Knight of the Realm, Sir Tom, has tricked himself into believing that his bad behaviour and infidelity had played absolutely no part in his poor wife’s decline down through the decades; the very same woman who seems to have sacrificed so much, including her positive mental state, on the altar of her husband’s phenomenal success.
And I do understand that life on the road must have been difficult for poor, put-upon Tom, what with the girlos sniffing around him like they were ravenous dogs and he was an open tin of puppy chow. However, on the other hand, you see readers, it’s my belief that very often those who become intoxicated by their own importance tend to forget that one special person who will still remain by their side as a constant, loyal presence once their dubious spark begins to dim.
We all bear responsibilities in life, one of those being that we should cherish the people we love and in turn, feel cherished by them. Now I’m not saying you should enjoy every single second you spend in their company; God no, that would be weird and slightly abnormal; but for a successful man who has literally gone from the Valleys to Vegas, Jones appears to have learned very little about gentlemanly behaviour along the way; and, despite the fact he has said he “still loves Linda,” (well big whoop!), his alleged remarks are disrespectful and undignified not just to his wife, but to women in general.
Mind you Jones does credit Linda as being “strong,” and if what he is quoted as saying about her looks is true, she’d not only need to be a strong person, she’d also need to have a strong stomach in order to swallow all that boorish bull he’s laying on, when, in an attempt to recover from the media backlash, he told the Daily Mail his affairs were just “Part of life. Everything I’ve done is a part of life. You can’t cry over spilt milk and nobody got hurt. And my wife is still with me.” Wow, somebody always gets hurt when cheating occurs and while we’re at it, can I ask, where do you get your misshapen take on fidelity Sir Tom…Adultery Barn?
Here’s a thought, when your singing career comes to an end, why don’t you type up all those cock-a-hoop little insights for us laydeez; you know, the ones who’ve lost our spark and email them to The Smart Ass Digest; I’m sure we’d all love advice from a skilled seducer like your good self…NOT!
