HE says she “saved” him — now Vinnie Jones faces life without the woman he calls his perfect match. On Saturday, it was announced that Tanya, 53, had died after a six-year battle with skin cancer. They were pictured together for a final time last year, at a pharmacy near their home in Los Angeles. […]
HE says she “saved” him — now Vinnie Jones faces life without the woman he calls his perfect match.
On Saturday, it was announced that Tanya, 53, had died after a six-year battle with skin cancer.
They were pictured together for a final time last year, at a pharmacy near their home in Los Angeles.
Though she must have been in pain, Tanya smiled as she gazed at her husband.
Former footballer-turned-actor Vinnie had said of his wife: “I take my strength from Tanya.
“She believes her life was saved to save me and in return, I feel it is my role to look after her. Goodness knows where I would be without her.”
After nearly losing her several times due to her poor health and his own bad behaviour, Vinnie had said Tanya was his “perfect match”.
The pair first met aged 12 in their home town of Watford and over the years coped with chaos, controversy and serious health problems.
In 1987, Tanya underwent an emergency heart transplant and had twice fought off cervical cancer.
And in 2013, Vinnie, now 54, revealed they had both been diagnosed with melanoma skin cancer. Two years later, they were given the all-clear — but Tanya’s condition recently went downhill.
A statement by Vinnie’s management team said: “At 8.46am local time in Los Angeles on Saturday July 6, Vinnie Jones’ wife Tanya Jones passed away after a long illness.
“Tanya passed peacefully at the Jones family home surrounded by Vinnie, their daughter and other family members.”
Tanya was previously married to Watford footballer Steve Terry, when she was 19.
During the birth of their daughter Kaley, Tanya’s heart failed and she had to wait six weeks before a donor became available. During that period, she repeatedly faced death.
Recalling that time, Tanya said: “At first, they didn’t realise what was wrong.
“My life was saved by chance when a heart specialist walked into the unit, glanced at me and said my heart had collapsed.
“I nearly died five or six times before a suitable heart, from a 14-year-old German boy, became available.”
After the op, her marriage crumbled.
Vinnie followed her story in the local paper and began to visit her in hospital.
They became an item and the hardman member of Wimbledon F.C.’s infamous Crazy Gang asked Tanya’s father for her hand in marriage.
Vinnie said: “We’d been together for two years when I went to her dad and said I wanted to marry her.
“He said, ‘You know what you’re taking on?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I know and I’m going to take care of her and look after her’.
“I feel she was saved to save me, and I was meant to look after her.”
They married in Watford in 1994 and had son Aaron together.
In 1995, Vinnie bit a journalist on the nose in a Dublin bar in what he has called “a prank gone wrong”.
He was bombarded with hate mail and came close to taking his life. In 2009, he revealed he had walked into woods near his home with a loaded gun.
Vinnie said: “I planned it. I didn’t want my wife finding me, so I sent her down to the shops.
“I told her I was going to the woods to shoot pigeons. But the dog followed me.”
The sight of his Jack Russell terrier changed Vinnie’s mind.
Two years later, Vinnie was convicted of assaulting a neighbour in a late-night row. Though frail, Tanya was by his side for the trial.
Vinnie said seeing the incident’s effect on his wife was worse than the sentence. He said: “That killed me as much as the 140 hours’ community service.
“Seeing her face when they handcuffed me, knowing I couldn’t cuddle her, that was horrible.
“Family stand by you, right or wrong. I know Tans will love me for ever.
“But she always says, ‘You’ve got to bloody stop this. You’ve got to calm down’.”
Vinnie made his movie debut in 1998’s Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels. He subsequently moved to the US and racked up dozens of screen roles.
But the trouble continued. In 2003, he was convicted of assault and threatening behaviour after slapping a passenger and threatening cabin crew on a flight to Tokyo.
In his autobiography It’s Been Emotional — written with former Sun Showbiz Editor Gordon Smart — he said: “The row started when some passengers told us to pipe down.
“As always in my case, a few drinks too many ended up with a full-scale shouting match and a bit of a grapple. I regret the whole ugly episode.
“When I hear about my telling the stewardess, ‘I can get you murdered, I can get the whole crew murdered for £3,000’, it makes me shiver. I don’t recall saying that.”
In 2012, he was snapped kissing a girl he met at a club in Russia while filming a documentary. Vinnie, who had been drinking, said he had no memory of it.
Tanya learned of the episode from a reporter while they were visiting family.
In an exclusive interview, Vinnie told The Sun: “Tans was going nuts. I put the phone down and she went f***ing ballistic. I had nothing to say other than, ‘I’m sorry’.
“She phoned her mum, who came and picked her up. I was absolutely shellshocked and didn’t know what to do.”
Russian model Lama Safonova insisted she had been seeing Vinnie for a year but he called her claims “total rubbish” and said he was the victim of a honey trap.
But he publicly apologised to Tanya, telling The Sun: “I am humiliated, embarrassed and very sorry. I was set up at 2am in the morning when leaving a party.
“I totally love Tanya and my two children.”
He said the incident led to “the biggest test of my 20 years of marriage”. But Tanya stood by him.
Vinnie said: “The number-one person who is there when you turn round is your wife. It has always been Tanya.
“We’ve been through everything and this angel is still there for me through thick and thin. I risked everything over a stupid night out.
“It was heartbreaking seeing the pain on Tanya’s face. Answering to the children was even harder. That is the lowest I’ve seen Tans in all the time we’ve been together.
“We have a lot of work still to do but we love each other more than anything on the planet and that is getting us through.”
Fear of losing Tanya prompted Vinnie to see a psychologist.
He said: “For an alcoholic to combat his problems, he has to admit to those problems. I needed to put an end to this carnage I seem to cause.
“The less I drink, the more my anger fades. I think that’s how it started. My parents got divorced when I was young and alcohol seemed to trigger everything.”
Since the incident in Russia, he has “virtually given up” alcohol — and wishes he had sooner. In 2013, Vinnie discovered a lump under his eye — before Tanya was diagnosed with skin cancer, too.
He said: “When it comes to things like this, women are stronger.
“Suddenly I’ve gone from the one helping her to the one that needs support.”
Vinnie said doctors believed Tanya’s skin cancer was due to the drugs she had been taking since her heart transplant.
He said: “We’ve been through a lot with my wife and her health. She’s has to take a lot of medication for her heart transplant, so what I had was minimal compared to what she’s been through.
“She’s the most incredible person. We’re the perfect match and I was lucky to find it.
Now he must go on without her.
