Jones’s resilient marriage

Despite his frequent straying, Jones still loves his high school sweetheart.

Tom Jones has a very forgiving wife, said Spencer Bright in The Daily Mail (U.K.). During his 55-year marriage to Linda, the singer has admitted to numerous infidelities—the most famous being his long-term affairs with Mary Wilson of the Supremes and former Miss World Marjorie Wallace. But their relationship survived, Jones says, because Linda understood that some things are best not discussed. “You shouldn’t be questioning one another all the time,” he says. “If somebody is on at you too much, it can turn you off—and she has never done that to me. She is not condoning anything. It’s not like I can do anything I want and that’s all right. No, no. There are certain things you don’t talk about, and certain things you do.” The couple grew up just 600 feet apart in the small Welsh mining town of Pontypridd, and married when they were 16 years old. And despite his frequent straying, Jones says he still loves his high school sweetheart. “But it’s not like the love when you are passionate teenagers,” says Jones, 71. “We grew up together, come from the same place, have the same sense of humor. That has a lot to do with it. How do you walk away from somebody that you get along so well with? What’s the point?”

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