The Voice: Tom Jones puts Midé into the semi-finals
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The Sex Bomb singer married his “childhood sweetheart” Melinda Rose Trenchard, known as Lady Linda, at 16 years old. They spent 59 years together before she died from lung cancer, five years ago. Sir Tom, now 80, described his late wife as a “wonderful woman” but like with many marriages, they had their problems and the singer has spoken publicly about the details of their rows.
Sir Tom and The Squires, his former band, rose to fame in the Sixties before they shot to number one in UK charts with the hit It’s Not Unusual.
After that, they toured the US where scores of women claimed to have slept with the singer – despite him being married.
Sir Tom previously confessed to more than 250 affairs a year at the height of his fame, in a 2012 Telegraph article.
He claimed his affairs “never hurt anybody” and that his “marriage was solid” – but later detailed one explosive clash where Linda “chinned” him after discovering an affair.
Sir Tom’s former bandmate Vernon Hopkins gave insight into the couple’s struggles and one surprising threat that “regularly” emerged in arguments, during a chat with Express.co.uk.
The 80-year-old, who was a guitarist in The Squires, accused Sir Tom of “betraying” his wife with “below zero” remarks about her.
Mr Hopkins, of Swansea, decided to speak out after Sir Tom’s recent appearances on the ITV show The Voice.
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He slated the star for claiming Linda had “lost her spark” in a 2015 Sunday Times interview, around a year before her death.
Mr Hopkins told Express.co.uk: “She became a recluse, smoking and drinking excessively, she lost her spark, let herself go and lost her good looks, according to Tom.
“Nothing to do with how she was treated of course, as far as he was concerned it was all just ‘fun and games’, as he so eloquently put it.”
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Mr Hopkins believed Sir Tom “lacked empathy and conscience” for using such words to describe his wife.
When asked if he “regretted” being “serially unfaithful” by the Sunday Times, he simply replied: “Naw.”
Sir Tom branded his extramarital activity “fun and games”, which Mr Hopkins considered “below zero”.
Mr Hopkins met Linda when he was 21 and knew her for 10 years while Sir Tom was performing with The Squires.
He recalled she was a “lovely, Valleys girl” whose “loyalty was cemented in the schoolyard”, when she met the singer.
But on several occasions, Mr Hopkins claimed Sir Tom would moan about arguments he had with Linda.
In some of them, she allegedly made an unusual threat against the singer.
Mr Hopkins told Express.co.uk: “If he had a row with Linda, he used to get in the van and go ‘Oh Jesus’.
“He would get in the van and go ‘Oh, Jesus Christ!’”
When Mr Hopkins would ask if they “had a row again”, Sir Tom claimed she had tried to summon her deceased father.
He claimed that the remark “used to frighten” the singer because of his spiritual beliefs.
Mr Hopkins told Express.co.uk: “He believed in the afterlife and all of that, you know, God and everything.
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“And she used to say, ‘Dad, come down and haunt him! Or have him or something like that’.
“And he would say, ‘Oh Jesus, she’s done it again, she’s just told her dad to come down and bloody haunt me.’”
Mr Hopkins recalled Sir Tom talking about that threat “quite a bit” and he claimed Linda used it against him on a regular basis.
He claimed the singer said: “Jesus Christ, we’ve had a row and she bloody said it again – ‘Dad come down and haunt him!’”
Mr Hopkins claimed their arguments were “like any other couple’s” apart from Linda’s unusual remark.
He decided to speak out against Sir Tom after he made “comments” about Linda – Mr Hopkins wanted to speak with “equal openness in her defence”.
Mr Hopkins said he had “a lot of respect” for Linda and was shocked by Sir Tom’s comments about her personal struggles.
Speaking himself about the arguments he had with Linda, Sir Tom recalled a time when she “chinned” him after news of one of his affairs reached her.
He said: “I stood there and took it… When she let fly, Dai [his minder] just left.
“I said, ‘Go ahead’. She chinned me… She punched and shouted.”
Sir Tom Jones’ representatives did not respond to a request for comment from Express.co.uk.
Vernon Hopkins’ memoir Just Help Yourself: Tom Jones, The Squires And The Road To Stardom was published in 2012 by Seren. You can buy the book here and listen to it in audiobook format later this year.
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