Jane McDonald's heartbreaking admission about never having children

Jane McDonald made a heartbreaking admission about why she never had children. The TV presenter, 61, was married to her manager Henrik Brixen for five years until 2003.

The couple had previously discussed the prospect of having a child, which Jane touched upon in her 2019 autobiography, Riding The Waves: My Story.

She confessed: "Henrik and I once talked about having children but there wasn't room for babies in his plans for me. I began to feel lonely in my marriage."

Jane met Henrik, born in Denmark, when he was working as a plumbing engineer on a ship. He went on to become her manager after they tied the knot in 1998.

But sadly for the singer, their relationship began to change. "Your manager is your boss and tells you what to do, what to wear and who to be, so our relationship changed," Jane wrote. "I loved him with all my heart, but felt he'd stopped looking at me as a wife. I became a product."

She added: "I lost confidence and became introverted. Eventually, I came to the devastating conclusion that I really did have nothing left. I told Henrik, 'I'm firing you as my manager.'"

Speaking to The Mirror, Jane admitted Henrik gave up on their marriage to save her career. "Henrik tried his very, very best and he was brilliant at what he did, but he didn't know the industry," she said.

The former Loose Women star continued: "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.' And that is why I never talk about Henrik in a bad light at all because he was the one that walked out of the marriage to save my career."

Jane also spoke about her decision not to have children in 2013, telling Echo News: "For me, it was an easy decision to not have children, because I knew I couldn't do both."

After Jane split from Henrik, she reconnected with her teenage boyfriend Eddie Rothe in 2008. Eddie, who was a drummer for the 1960s band The Searchers, sadly died of lung cancer in 2021.

The TV favourite opened up about her grief at the end of 2023 as she reflected on losing her fiancé and her mum, who passed away in December 2018.

"I do shed the occasional tear and especially at new year. That’s when it hits me," she told OK! Magazine. "If the two of them are looking down on me, I honestly think they wouldn’t want me to be lost in sadness wondering what to do with the rest of my life."

Cruising with Jane McDonald airs on Sunday on Channel 5 at 4:05pm.