Celebrity Gogglebox star Jane McDonald looking up and talking on This Morning
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Jane McDonald on why she didn’t have children during ‘lonely’ marriage

She'd have been an amazing mother

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TV star Jane McDonald once opened up about why she didn’t have children during her previous marriage.

The Cruising with Jane McDonald star previously opened up about her “lonely marriage”. The beloved TV star was married to her manager Henrik Brixen from 1998 to 2003.

Celebrity Gogglebox star Jane McDonald smiling on Loose Women
Jane once explained why she didn’t have children (Credit: ITV)

Jane McDonald on not having children

In her 2019 autobiography, Riding The Waves: My Story, Jane opened up about not having kids. She wrote: “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.”

Henrik and I once talked about having children but there wasn’t room for babies in his plans for me.

She also said: “Your manager is your boss and tells you what to do, what to wear and who to be, so our relationship changed. I loved him with all my heart, but felt he’d stopped looking at me as a wife. I became a product.”

This isn’t the first time Jane has opened up about her relationship with Henrik.

Jane McDonald smiling at BAFTAs
Jane was previously married to her manager Henrik Brixen from 1998 to 2003 (Credit: SplashNews.com)

In 2018, Jane explained why she would never speak about Henrik – who was a ship’s plumber, who later became Jane’s manager – in a bad light.

Speaking to the Mirror at the time, Jane said: “Henrik tried his very, very best and he was brilliant at what he did, but he didn’t know the industry. 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.”

Celebrity Gogglebox star Jane McDonald and partner Ed at BAFTAs
Jane lost her partner Ed in 2021 (Credit: SplashNews.com)

Jane McDonald on loss of partner Ed

More recently, Jane sadly lost her fiancé Eddie Rothe in 2021. He died following a battle with lung cancer.

Speaking on her friend Kaye Adams’ podcast How To Be 60 in 2022, Jane said of her loss: “When he died, he took our future. I’ve got to have a different life now. And that’s taken a bit of adjusting to. But I’ll get there, because that’s what we do, we get there.”

Read more: Jane McDonald admits fiancé Ed ‘took their future’ when he died: ‘I’ve got to have a different life now’

Jane’s on Cruising the Med Sunday July 21 at 4.05pm on Channel 5.

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Rebecca Carter
Associate Editor (News)