Shane MacGowan’s widow worried about his death for 35 years

05 December 2023 , 15:48

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Shane MacGowan’s widow worried about his death for 35 years

Shane MacGowan’s widow has admitted she worried about his impending death for the past 35 years because he “pushed the boundaries of what humans can do to their bodies”.

The Pogues frontman, best known for classic Christmas hit song Fairytale Of New York, died last week at the age of 65. He had been diagnosed with encephalitis, which is swelling of the brain, following his latest bout of ill-health and after years of alcohol and substance abuse.

Now Victoria Mary Clarke says that she’d been anxious about losing her hell-raising husband for so long that, in the event, it hasn’t been as bad as she thought. She explained: ”The biggest fear you probably have is that you’re going to lose a loved one. And it’s going to happen, you can’t really get around that. I know that, for me, I spent many, many years, probably at least 35 years, worrying about losing Shane because he just pushed the boundaries so much of what humans can do to their bodies.

“So I dreaded that, and I thought that I would fall apart, I thought I would die, I thought I would not be able to speak, I thought I’d be comatose or on drugs myself or something like that.”

Victoria Mary Clarke says she feared for late husband Shane MacGowan's health for decades before his sad death (X/Twitter)

Speaking to Good Morning Britain, she explained: “I just want you all to know that it’s not as bad as you think it’s going to be. And there’s a huge amount of love that comes your way when you lose someone, that you didn’t really expect. And in my case, I’ve been overwhelmed by how much love and support there is.”

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Fairytale Of New York is now battling to score the coveted Christmas number one spot. Despite being hugely popular the song, performed by McGowan and the late Kirsty McColl, has never topped the charts since its original release in 1987. Dublin-born Victoria, a writer and music journalist, said that if it gets to number one now, she doesn’t think McGowan would be bitter that it didn’t happen while he was alive.

“I don’t think Shane would mind too much if Fairytale goes to number one,” she said. “I don’t think it was ever that important to him, because I think that he really appreciated the fact that so many people love it and it means so much to so many people. Being number one isn’t really all about being appreciated.”

The Pogues' iconic song, Fairytale Of New York featuring Kirsty MacColl, is tipped to reach number 1 this Christmas (YouTube)

Asked how she felt about the song when she first heard it, before it was released, she laughed: “I think I might have thought it was a little bit cheesy at the time. I often criticised his songwriting, which didn’t go down too well. I do love it now.”

The song, written by MacGowan with fellow Pogues founder Jem Finer, has returned to the UK Christmas top 40 every year since 2005. Victoria, 57, first met MacGowan when she was just 16 and said she’d loved watching him perform, confessing: “It wasn’t always easy, as you will know, because he pushed the boundaries and he was reckless and he was very unconventional – it was like watching a racing driver and not knowing if they were going to crash, watching him going on stage.”

The pair were together for decades and had an 11-year engagement before finally tying the knot in 2018. In 2009 they appeared on Irish TV in a reality special in which they attempted to grow their own vegetables.

Victoria said that in recent years the pair of them had led a fairly conventional lifestyle. “Me and Shane, we spent most of our lives sitting at home watching The Crown. We didn’t really go out, so we didn’t know what was going on in the outside world very much. We had a very quiet life, very, very happy, and we didn’t want anything else. We just wanted to sit here together watching telly,” she said.

MacGowan, who was heavily influenced by Irish folk music, was born in Kent to Angle-Irish parents. His funeral will be held in Nenagh, County Tipperary, on Friday and will be open to the public. The cremation will be private.

Nicola Methven