Paul O'Grady's secret wife has paid tribute to the much-loved TV star and comedian.
Teresa Fernandes was secretly married to Paul for 28 years and has now shared her heartbreak over the sudden death of her beloved friend.
Paul was an openly gay man, though he had admitted to marrying Portuguese ex wife Teresa in 1977 to stop her deportation, reports The Mirror.
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"We probably enjoyed one of the longest marriages in showbiz!" she shared.
The star met Teresa in a gay club where they worked, and he decided to marry her out of "convenience" and to stop her being "hassled" by her family.
The pair legally divorced in 2005 after being married for 28 years, but Paul said he had never been in a relationship with her.
Speaking about the marriage, Paul said: "Teresa, I call her the lesbian Portuguese barmaid, was lovely. She looked like David Cassidy.
"We worked in a club in Westbourne Grove, London, when I was 22. She was from a very strict Catholic family and was always being hassled by them: 'Why aren't you getting married?' So I said: 'Come on then, we'll get married', and we did. We were married for 28 years."
He actually admitted that he had forgotten he had married the barmaid all those years ago, until his manager Brendan reminded him. His manager had told him: "If anything happened to you, everything would go to your wife. It's like a real-life Corrie storyline."
O'Grady went on to marry Brazilian ballet dancer Andre Portasio in 2017, after meeting at London-based gay club Showplace and becoming friends.
It was fellow actor Julian Clary that inspired him to tie the knot, with Paul explaining: "Julian put the seed in my head. He said, 'I've got married. You should'."
Paul said that he was "right" because it "protected" his partner if anything happened to him, adding: "It makes sense".
He continued: "You feel more committed. You have made a vow, you have to stick to it. But we still fight like cat and dog.
"Married life is the same as before. We have known each other so long. Nothing has changed, really.
"And it's nice. I like saying I'm married – better than saying I'm a divorcee, which I was before."
Teresa thinks she last saw Paul in the 1980s while he was performing at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, where they later reminisced about their past.
The couple were eventually divorced and the date on the papers was Valentine's Day, February 14, 2005.
She said: "Paul always made me laugh and I always used to say he would make someone very happy and he was a lovely man, we had such a good friendship and it's shame we drifted apart.
"'Him offering to marry me to help me out was just one of those things that Paul would do, he would help anyone, he was very kind natured and you can see that, he would help anyone if they need it.
"I was sad when I heard he had died, I was surprised though because every time I saw him on the TV and in the newspapers he always looked so good and he was still young, he wasn't old like me at all."
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