Jane McDonald has emotionally shared how the grief of losing her mother and her partner 'never leaves you' as she gave a warning to fans about her upcoming tour. The singer and cruising favourite appeared on ITV's Lorraine on Friday morning (April 26) to chat about her latest projects.
Jane joined Lorraine Kelly's stand-in host Ranvir Singh live in the studio and shared how getting back on stage has helped her cope with grief, after losing her mum and partner and what fans can expect from her upcoming tour.
The beloved TV star, 59, is returning to the stage later this year, in her 'With Love' tour, after she lost her mother, Jean, in December 2018, with her fiancé Eddie Rothe dying in April 2021 following a battle with lung cancer.
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Opening up on her loss and choosing to stay positive, Jane admitted: "You have to find your way of dealing with it, it’s not easy. It never leaves you either. Everybody thinks, ‘Oh, she's back on track’. No, it never leaves you. I have to make a decision every morning what my day is going to be like, because you can go that way, or you can go that way."
She continued: "I choose to go the positive way and it's not always easy. It's not always easy and if you have a bad day, that's fine. Have a bad day. But in general, now I look at my life and I think, ‘I've got a lot more good days in my life than I have bad days now’.
"I've come on leaps and bounds and I think the music and touring again, and getting back with my band, and writing new stuff again is just, it's given me such joy and a purpose. My purpose is to go out and entertain. Yeah, I think once you've found your purpose in life, everything just comes together and I feel my purpose now is to get back on that stage."
Later in the interview, Jane also said: "It's that purpose thing again. You know, my life is different now to what it was and my plans have all changed now to what they were. I have a great group of girlfriends that I go out with a lot, we go on holiday together. I laugh again and there's that one moment when you look in the mirror and you think, ‘I know you’.
"I feel as if I'm back! It's the music and seeing the fans again on tour that are going to bring all that joy. That's why I've called it ‘With All My Love’ because I love the [fans] so much and they helped me through such an incredibly difficult time."
Remembering Eddie, she emotionally told Ranvir: "I had the most amazing thirteen years with this man. That's what I think of, how lucky and blessed I've been to have that time with him and know real love."
Discussing paying tribute to Eddie and her mum on her upcoming tour, Jane revealed: “I wrote a secondary song for my mother. I wrote a song called ‘The Hand That Leads Me’ which is going to be a weeping moment in the show. So get ready fans – bring your tissues! It's me just sat acoustically at the piano, playing this song for my mother and singing it. Then ‘You Still Lead Me’ was the follow up but just as Ed became ill, I'd recorded that song so it's got a double meaning.”
She continued: "But it's for everybody, this is how I get through the show. I don't think of it as my song, I think it is their song because there's so many people out there that have gone through exactly what I have. The songs are for you, not for me, and that's how I get through it."
