Sir Tom Jones has spoken with rare honesty about the pressures and “temptations” that came with global fame — and the real reason he believes he strayed while married to his beloved wife Linda, whom he once called “the love of my life”.
The Welsh icon, now a coach on The Voice UK, was married to Linda for 59 years until her death in 2016 following a short but fierce battle with lung cancer. Yet during the height of his career, Sir Tom previously admitted he slept with up to 250 women while still devoted to his childhood sweetheart.
In his 2015 autobiography Over the Top and Back, the star reflected on how difficult it was to resist the attention of female fans while touring the world.
“There was sex in the shows, and there was sex around the shows. The air seemed to crackle with it,” he wrote.
Looking back on the atmosphere of his concerts in the 1970s, he added: “There was a general horniness in the crowd. The atmosphere was alive with the possibility of sex — in a way that was definitely going to play out to the advantage of the band and the crew, and beyond.”
With his trademark humour, he even joked: “The story was that even the stage doorman would get some when I was around. As somebody once said, I was the Pied Piper of p***y — to use another rejected title for this book.”
Sir Tom also revealed how he leaned into that image while performing, with women regularly throwing their underwear onto the stage.
“When you’re a performer and you find something that works, you work it — so it grew and it built,” he said.
“When I stooped mid-song to kiss the women who had forced their way to the edge of the stage, it wasn’t just a peck on the cheek. It was full-on, mouth-to-mouth.
“I was going over as some kind of love god, and I was going over so strongly that occasionally I was even persuaded of it myself. The road will set temptations in front of you that are hard to resist.”
Linda later discovered some of her husband’s affairs, including his romance with Miss World Marjorie Wallace, after the pair were pictured kissing on a beach in Barbados in 1976.
Speaking about the fallout, Sir Tom admitted: “I stood there and took it. She chinned me. I said, ‘Go ahead.’ She punched and shouted.”
The singer also had a two-year relationship with Mary Wilson of The Supremes, which began while he was touring the United States in 1968. Linda reportedly became suspicious after learning that Mary had flown to the UK for a performance in Bournemouth.
Linda passed away aged 75, leaving Sir Tom heartbroken and struggling to come to terms with his grief after losing the woman who had been by his side since childhood.
