Fairytale of New York legend Shane MacGowan & wife ‘very grateful’ to be alive as they celebrate wedding anniversary
LEGENDARY rockstar Shane MacGowan and his wife Victoria Mary Clarke have told how they are “very grateful” to be alive as they celebrate their wedding anniversary today.
The icon wed his long term love Victoria Mary Clarke at an intimate ceremony in Denmark in 2018 when he finally proposed after 32 years of dating.
The 65-year-old celebrated the five year wedding anniversary with the love of his life Victoria today after being released from hospital on Wednesday.
And Victoria shared a heartwarming message alongside a snap of their Copenhagen City Hall wedding as she declared her love for her husband.
She said: “The wedding anniversary today, very grateful that we are all still alive! Sending love to everyone who loves.”
Back in 2018, an emotional Victoria insisted the couple had originally planned to keep their wedding “totally secret”.
But she said that plan was scuppered when their excited friends and family wanted to step in and help make their day special.
Victoria gushed: “Shane and I are both introverts and we decided that the only solution was to just elope together to someplace that we know nobody and nobody knows us, and keep it a secret.
“But I have discovered something about weddings that I had not realised.
“People really, really want to show that they love the people that they care about.”
The pair briefly split in the early 2000s as Shane battled substance addiction, but were persuaded they were meant for one another by wildman Pete Doherty.
Victoria previously explained: “After I left Shane, I was even more miserable, even though I replaced him with a good-looking guy who wore clean suits and drank only in moderation.
“It occurred to me that when I thought of Shane, I didn’t think of the bad times – I felt only love.
“It’s easy to feel love for someone you have just met but if you still feel it so strongly after 20 years, after you’ve both been with other people and dealt with alcoholism and depression, it must be really special.”
‘THROUGH SICKNESS AND HEALTH’
Victoria explained that when they started meeting again they realised they were “probably going to spend the rest of our lives together”.
She said: “We were out one night with Kate Moss, whom we’ve known for years, and Pete Doherty.
“They were talking about the possibility of them marrying and Kate asked Shane: ‘Why don’t you buy Victoria an engagement ring?’
“We both laughed but then we thought, why not? After all, we have already been through the ‘sickness and health, richer and poorer, better and worse’ thing.
“So Shane bought me a ring – silver with garnets –and I’ve bought him one that’s silver with an amethyst.”
Recently, Shane has been receiving care in hospital for viral encephalitis – a serious condition which leads to brain swelling.
He has been hospitalised a number of times since the diagnosis and was thought to have been admitted again in June, but Victoria has not revealed the exact reasons why.
His release earlier this week is a dream come true for Victoria, who had earlier this month revealed hopes of getting the music legend home for the festive season.