Shane MacGowan's wife says 'connection deepened' after he gave up heroin

18 December 2023 , 08:02

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Victoria Mary Clarke has shared an insight into her relationship with Shane MacGowan (Image: Getty Images)

Victoria Mary Clarke has shared an insight into her marriage with the late Shane MacGowan.

The Pogues frontman died last month following a lengthy bout of ill health, having recently been discharged from hospital. Following his devastating death, tributes poured out from across the world with Johnny Depp and Sir Bob Geldof reading a prayer at his funeral.

Following Shane's death, Victoria admits she's "doing fine" and still feels the presence of the late Pogues frontman, who is "watching" her. At his funeral on December 8, Victoria documented the extent of Shane's battle with drugs and revealed he would once take "100 tabs of acid per day".

She later added that she once found Shane, who had been locked in the bathroom, for five hours, speaking to a dead Irish poet. On another occasion, she revealed that she found Shane hidden in the attic 'tripping out' and speaking to Freddie Kruger.

Shane MacGowan's widow, Victoria Mary Clarke, has opened up about their relationship (Getty Images)

She says their connection became deeper when Shane gave up heroin (Richard Young/REX/Shutterstock)

Speaking about their 2018 wedding in Copenhagen after the couple rekindled their romance following another separation, Victoria said Shane was on time "because by that stage he had changed very much. He calmed down, and he began to do what I asked him to do." She went on to tell The Guardian : "He gave up smoking, he gave up heroin. The only fight we ever had after the wedding was about him doing his physio! He really mellowed. And our connection deepened."

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Victoria also went on to reveal that her late husband was "bored" of people focusing on his hit song, Fairytale of New York, which has since been tipped to be the Christmas Number One track. Recently, she explained it was "hard to feel sad" about Shane's death and believes he's in a "blissful state".

Speaking to Anita Rani on BBC's Radio 4's Woman's Hour, she said: "Shane is very much with me, I don't feel he's gone, when I look at his picture, I feel him smiling at me. And I actually feel a real smile, a real genuine connection. I feel his love and that connection very strongly. It's very hard to feel sad about it, even though I do sometimes burst into tears for my own loss, I can't feel sad for him because I really feel like he's in a very blissful state."

Shane died of pneumonia in Dublin at the age of 65 on November 30. The Rainy Night in Soho singer was hospitalised in 2022 with shingles and viral encephalitis, a severe condition that causes inflammation of the brain, before being admitted to the ICU last summer.

Daniel Bird