She might be the queen of cruising, but this Christmas Jane McDonald’s feet are going to be firmly on dry land as she celebrates in her beloved hometown, Wakefield, with her nearest and dearest.
The singer, 59, tells us she’ll be surrounded by family – including her niece’s new baby – at her West Yorkshire home, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I’ve got everybody coming for the day,” she tells us. “We’re cooking for 11 on Christmas Day, but it’ll be great because it’s the family and we’ve got a new baby and we’re all just mad about it. In fact, we won’t even put the TV on, because we’ll be watching the baby!”
After losing her partner, musician Eddie Rothe, last year following a battle with lung cancer, Jane says she’s more grateful than ever for the circle of close friends who “will always be there” for her.
“I think you appreciate your friends more when you get older,” she says. “We’re all of a certain age, we’re all on our own – every one of us – but that’s your family. That’s who you go to. We’ve got a network of people we can call at three o’clock in the morning and say, ‘I’m having a bad day.’ It’s those friends who’d take a bullet for you. And I’m very grateful. I’m very blessed to have them in my life.”
She’s also close to her brother, Tony, and sister, Janet, although she admits they’re still slightly baffled by her jet-set lifestyle.
“They just don’t get my job at all,” laughs the star, who shot to fame in 1998 after starring on BBC show The Cruise . “They just think, ‘Oh God, she’s off again!’ They’ve got this lovely family life and have been married forever. They must look at my life and think, ‘What on earth is she doing?’”
Jane has been a telly staple for 25 years, appearing on hit shows including Loose Women and the BAFTA-winning Cruising With Jane McDonald . And after finding fame relatively late in life, she is all too aware how fortunate she is to have had such a long run at the top of her profession.
“I’ve got the best job in telly – and I know it,” she says. “I think I’m very lucky to be in a job that I absolutely love.”
But as she approaches her landmark 60th birthday next April, the hard-working entertainer says she’s considering slowing down a little.
“I’m just finding now that I can’t do it all,” she admits. “For the past seven or eight years I’ve toured, sang, produced, then done all the TV… and I just got to the point where I thought, ‘I’m tired. I can’t do all this.’ I’m trying to space it out a little bit more, just to give me time to do my washing!”
While we’re used to seeing Jane soaking up the sun on luxury cruise liners, her latest travel show sees her swapping the usual sandy beaches for snow-capped mountains.
In Jane McDonald’s Highland Christmas , the much-loved entertainer and a group of her pals head to the northern extremities of her family’s homeland, Scotland.
But chilly as it may be, it’s impossible not to feel a warm festive glow as Jane celebrates at her cosy firelit lodge, enjoying the best of the season’s traditions as well as savouring a warm Highland welcome complete with whisky-tasting, bauble-making and candlelit carols with children.
“We had the best time and we laughed a lot,” says Jane. “We drank a lot. We ate a lot. We trimmed the whole place up, so it was really festive.
“This is a different type of Christmas, because it’s me and my mates and I think the story behind this is that your family can be anyone you choose to be with at Christmas. And for me, that was my really close friends.”
Jane and her pals had a blast taking part in an array of seasonal activities, including foraging for supplies to make festive wreaths. “It was a real masterclass in how to have a good time at Christmas with your mates,” she says. “When the wreaths were all done, we were so proud of them twinkling away and it just added to the magic. It’s something that you can do on a budget, too.”
Not that there weren’t challenges along the way.
“We went curling, which is like bowls on ice,” says Jane. “Oh my God, it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever tried. It looks so easy, but I really wasn’t good at it!”
Although the star is used to travelling in warmer climes, she has a soft spot for Scotland – as fans of her previous travel
show, Cruising Scotland , will know.
“There’s something magical about Scotland and when you see it, you’ll get it,” she says. “It’s just beautiful. The mist comes down and teases you and then, all of a sudden, the mist lifts and there are mountains with snow on them. It is just the most stunning place I’ve ever, ever seen.
“I think Scotland is very underrated. I’ve been in the summer and it’s like the Caribbean, but in the winter it’s magical – misty, gorgeous, snowy. And there’s a welcome in Scotland that you don’t get anywhere else in the world”
Jane and her friends made the most of the local delicacies during their trip, particularly the whisky, which she says was “fantastic”. She also sampled haggis, but admits the culinary highlight of her stay was the venison.
“I have never tasted something so good in my life,” she says. “I mean, I’m a big fan of venison anyway, but oh gosh, that was a gorgeous venison stew.”
Although she was working, Jane says her trip to Scotland was “healing” and gave her time to wind down. She also found herself moved by the sound of the country’s native musical instrument, the bagpipes.
“I must admit there was an emotional moment when the piper came in and started playing,”
she reveals. “A lot of people go, ‘Oh no, not the bagpipes!’, but actually the bagpipes are very, very emotional for me personally because I’m Scottish. Just to hear that Scottish accent is fantastic, too.”
There was another treat for Jane when she got to wear the signature McDonald tartan for the first time.
“I didn’t realise just what an effect that would have on me,” she reveals. “I went to see this lovely kilt-maker called Margaret. Once I got in, we had a wee dram by her open fire and then she showed me this kilt that she’d made.
“I put it on and I swear I was choked. I was choked up because that’s the first time in my life that I’ve worn the McDonald tartan.”
With such strong affection for the country, could a retirement to her beloved Scotland possibly be on the cards?
“I must admit there’s something quite attractive about that solace [in Scotland],” she says. “Just being at one with the world – that’s what you feel like when you’re up there because it’s so remote.
But while I’d holiday there, I don’t think I’d buy a place – if I bought a place it’d be overlooking the sea in a hot country.
“But then again, nothing will take me away from Wakefield.”
