Jane McDonald ’s life changed forever in March 2021 when she lost her beloved partner of 13 years, Walter ‘Eddie’ Rothe, to lung cancer.
The English singer had been in a relationship with The Searchers drummer since 2008, when the former teenage lovers were re-introduced to each other by a mutual friend.
On Christmas Eve of that same year, Rothe asked for McDonald’s hand in marriage and the couple embarked on an engagement that would last over a decade.
The two never got the chance to tie the knot, however, due to the lockdown restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic and, ultimately, the devastating diagnosis of a terminal illness.
In April 2021, a spokesperson for McDonald took to social media to announce ‘with immense sadness’ the tragic death of Rothe.
The statement confirmed that the talented musician, who was once a member of the British disco band Liquid Gold , had ‘passed away’ at the age of 67 on March 26 after suffering from lung cancer ‘for the last few months’.
The heartbreaking post, which was accompanied by a selfie of McDonald with her fiancé, also expressed gratitude to the NHS staff who had cared for Rothe during his sickness.
How did Jane McDonald and Eddie Rothe meet?
McDonald first met Rothe in 1980, when she was just 17 years old.
They dated for about six months before splitting up, with the Loose Women star focusing on her music career as a cruise ship singer and as a TV personality.
It was during McDonald’s filming of BBC ’s The Cruise that she would meet her second husband, Henrick Brixen, who was working as a plumbing engineer on the same boat. She was previously married to a man named Paul from 1986 to 1987, but little is known about the short-lived relationship.
The BAFTA winner married Brixen in 1998 and later hired him as her manager, only for the couple to divorce and professionally part ways in 2003.
Speaking about the break-up in 2018, McDonald explained that she wasn't the one who ended the relationship.
The 60-year-old revealed that Brixen ‘walked out of the marriage to save my career’ after making the heartbreaking confession that he believed he was holding her back from success.
“Henrik tried his very very best and he was brilliant at what he did, but he didn’t know the industry,” McDonald told the Mirror . “We'd come to a point where Henrik had made quite a few enemies and he said, 'If I don’t leave you, you are never going to have a career.’”
Fortunately for McDonald, her divorce from Brixen didn’t mark the end of her romantic life.
The Yorkshire native would be wearing an engagement ring once again by December 2008, having rekindled her relationship with old flame, Eddie Rothe. The 70s crooner popped the question on Christmas Eve, over three decades after the pair first dated. Despite being elated by the proposal, McDonald was admittedly in no hurry to walk down the aisle.
“We are not rushing to get married,” she told the Mirror in 2011, after joking she’d set a record with the “longest courtship and engagement in history.” McDonald went on to praise her fiancé for being ‘so patient,’ before adding, “He’s fantastic, adorable and we’re having such a great time together.”
The songwriter also shared a surprising incentive not to rush into marriage, quipping that she’s in no position to cover the costs of legal separation for a third time.
“I love this one more than I ever loved the others and I don’t want to jinx it,” she said. “In any case, I can’t afford to get divorced again.”
In another interview with My Weekly, McDonald admitted that she may need to double check with Rothe that he hasn’t changed his mind about their marriage.
“It’s been so long that I’ll have to ask him and see whether he still wants to do it!” she said.
Tragically, McDonald and Rothe’s wedding never ended up happening.
The talented vocalist said goodbye to her adored fiancé in March 2021, having supported him through his final days at the Wakefield Hospice in West Yorkshire.
McDonald opened up about the loss on Loose Women last year, crediting her work as her ‘savior’ throughout her ‘devastating’ grief. She then expressed thanks for her loved ones, adding, “It is the support and the network that I have around me that has helped me through. I couldn’t have done it without the people around me.”
Rothe’s memory has also been kept alive by McDonald’s baby grandnephew, ‘Ed’, who was named after the late musician in a touching tribute.
