Vinnie Jones finds love again five years after death of wife Tanya

The footballer-turned-actor was left a broken shell of a man following the death of his wife of 25 years in 2019 from skin cancer
Tina Campbell4 April 2024
The Weekender

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Vinnie Jones has revealed he has found love with his PA, five years after the death of his wife Tanya and his own fears that he would never be happy again.

The 59-year-old former footballer-turned-actor said he is in a “fantastic” relationship with new partner Emma Ford, who he affectionately calls “Blondie”.

Ms Ford is a former TV reporter, DJ and event manager who like him, has also given up alcohol.

Jones, who has returned to acting as the star of Netflix's The Gentleman, has spoken of how Ford has “calmed” him down after years of hard drinking and depression left him “rotting inside”.

The Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels star once described late wife of 25 years Tanya as “the light of my life”.

Vinnie Jones with new partner Emma Ford in a promotional photograph for Vinnie Jones: In The Country
Perou/WBD/discovery+

While he is adamant that he will never get over her death aged 53, in 2019 at their LA home following a six-year battle with skin cancer, he said meeting Ford had taught him that a “flower can grow and and bloom” from even the darkest of times.

“Moving forwards, we meet other people that we are fond of and we fall in love with and vice versa. Maybe she's calmed me down a little bit. Maybe she brings a different perspective to it all for me,” he told the Mirror.

“You know, after four months, four years, five years, 10 years, you just keep moving forwards, the grief is always going to be in there.”

Adding: “It's how other things can control it. It's how much the flower can grow and and bloom. I think, for me, grief was always black and grey, but it doesn't have to be. It can be colours and happy memories.”

The couple were brought together by the pandemic and Jones’ decision to buy a farm in West Sussex, with her becoming a star of the documentary series about his new rural life that aired on Discovery+ last November.

Whispers abound last year that romance had blossomed after they were seen with his family enjoying a pub lunch just after Christmas.

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