When Jessica introduced her daughter Emma to her boyfriend Alex, she expected a warm welcome. Instead, Emma screamed in terror, convinced by her father’s warnings that Alex was a threat who would take her away forever.
I never imagined it would turn out this way. The sound of my daughter, Emma, screaming for help still rings in my ears. It was supposed to be a happy day, the day I introduced her to Alex, the man I’d been dating for over a year. But instead, it was a disaster.
Alex and I met at a charity event. He was charming and kind, always ready with a smile or a joke. We clicked immediately, and our relationship grew strong. We were serious, and I knew it was time for him to meet the most important person in my life – my daughter.
But I was scared. My divorce from Tom, Emma’s father, had been rough, and I worried about how she’d react to a new man in our lives.
Tom and I had shared custody of Emma. He usually babysat when I was out with Alex. Tom had already met Alex a few times and didn’t seem to have any problems with him. Or so I thought.
I spent days planning the perfect introduction. I made Emma’s favorite brunch – pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream. I even bought a new dress, wanting everything to be perfect. Alex arrived right on time, holding a gift and wearing his most welcoming smile.
“Hey, Alex, come on in,” I greeted him, my voice shaking slightly.
“Thanks, Jess. I’m excited to finally meet Emma,” Alex said, handing me the gift. “I hope she likes this.”
“She will,” I replied, hoping it was true. “Let me go get her.”
I walked to the bottom of the stairs and called out, “Emma, sweetheart, can you come down here for a moment? There’s someone I want you to meet.”
I heard the sound of little feet running down the stairs. As soon as she saw Alex, she stopped dead in her tracks. Her face went pale, and she looked terrified.
“No! Mommy, please, no!” Emma screamed, tears streaming down her face. She ran to me, hiding behind my legs. “Don’t let him take me! Please, Mommy!”
I was stunned. Alex looked as confused as I felt. I knelt down to Emma’s level, trying to calm her down.
“Emma, honey, it’s okay. This is Alex. He’s a friend,” I said softly, stroking her hair.
“No! He’s bad! He will take me away! I don’t want to go!” she sobbed, clinging to me tightly.
“Why do you think he’ll take you away?” I asked, my heart breaking at her fear.
“Daddy said he will! Daddy showed me pictures and told me to run if I ever see him!” Emma cried.
I felt a surge of anger and confusion. Tom had done this? Why would he scare her like that?
Alex knelt down beside me, his face full of concern. “Emma, I’m not going to take you away. I promise. I just want to be your friend,” he said gently.
Emma didn’t respond. She just cried and held on to me tighter. I stood up, holding her in my arms, and turned to Alex.
Tom Jones opens up about his marriage and love life after wife’s passing
After Linda’s death, Tom cancelled all his concerts and released a short statement:
Wife’s passing
“Surrounded by her husband and loved ones, she passed away peacefully,” the Sir Tom’s website wrote.
But last year, Sir Tom opened up on her tragic death. In an interview with This Morning, the Welshman said he would “never love again”.
His wife’s passing really crushed him and he struggled to perform on stage long after Linda was gone.
“When my wife passed away, I didn’t think I could sing,” Sir Tom explained. “When you’re emotional, you can’t sing, your voice closes up.
“There are certain songs I wouldn’t do. But you have to try and get things in the right perspective. Feeling emotional; use it to your advantage and put it into the song.
Now lives in London
“It took me a while,” he continued. “Took me a few months to try and see if I could sing. I got some of my musicians around and tried a few songs. But it was very emotional.”
Linda’s passing also had other consequences – Jones decided to sell their big mansion in Los Angeles, along with all their furniture, in order to move back to the UK.
Today he lives in a flat in London – that was Linda’s wish. His late wife had been homesick and wanted to move back to her roots, but cancer took her life before it was possible.
“She always said she wanted to come back and then she could not do it, so then she told me to do it in the last week she was alive,” said Sir Tom, who was married to Linda for 59 years.
There is no doubt that Jones still mourns Linda, whom he married at the age of 16. The couple met when Linda was 15.
Speaking to Radio 2, Sir Tom described the moment he first saw his wife-to-be:
“I remember her playing marbles and I thought, ‘My God, what great legs she’s got’. She was the best-looking girl around there and we got together. It was magic”, the singer said.
Linda and Sir Tom tied the knot as teenagers, just a month before their son, Mark, was born.
But their marriage would be rife with scandals and infidelity. For more than 50 years, Tom cheated on his wife.
om, who assumed the role of sex symbol, has previously admitted that he slept with 250 women a year at the peak of his career.
“From the very beginning, he was not exactly Mr Faithful,” biographer Sean Smith told Daily Mail in 2015.
It’s unclear how much Linda knew about her husband’s shady side, but it is clear that she suspected something wasn’t right. According to Sir Tom, the couple had a “don’t ask” policy when he was on tour.
”Linda lived a quiet life and rarely left the couple’s villa in Bel Air. During her single marriage to Tom, she has also had alcohol problems,” Robin Eggar, who wrote the official biography of Tom Jones, told the Daily Mail.
After 2003, the wife stopped accompanying her husband on his tours and remained mostly at home in the couple’s Bel Air mansion.
By then, she had already endured several scandals that must have tarnished their relationship.
In 1987, Tom Jones had a three-day fling with the 24-year-old Katherine Berkery, during tour in the US. According to reports, Katherine had no idea he was married and Tom refused to return her phone calls when she discovered she was pregnant with his child.
Nine months later, Jonathan Berkery was born in New York, in June 1988. Sir Tom denied he was Jon’s dad and refused to admit that it was his child.
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