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Jane McDonald has revealed a heartbreaking routine she uses to "feel a bit closer" to her late partner, Eddie Rothe. The singer endured the second of two personal tragedies in 2021, when Eddie, partner of 13 years, passed away just three years after her mother, Jean.

In April that year, the ITV Loose Women star announced Eddie's death, explaining that he had "been battling lung cancer for the last few months." Eddie, a former drummer for Liquid Gold and The Searchers, was 67. The couple initially met as teenagers at the Wakefield nightclub where Jane worked. Although they parted ways, they rekindled their relationship nearly three decades later after bumping into each other on the set of This Morning, leading to their engagement in 2008. Speaking in a recent interview, Jane reflected on the loss of her partner and the influence it has had on her music.

She made the remarks after it was suggested that she is an "icon" to older women who emphasise the importance of chasing your dreams, to which she advised: "go for it."

Jane told Woman magazine: "I think, just go for it. People my age have all joined the club where we've lost loved ones. Grief is always going to be there, right at your side, and it doesn't get any better or easier.

"What you have to do is fill your life with a load of joy, to sit alongside it. I feel like my mum and Ed are still with me because I talk about them all the time. I'm still full of love from them and that's a lovely place to be."

She was asked how losing Eddie had influenced a track on her latest album, Living The Dream. Jane acknowledged that it was the first time she had written about him, before sharing a ritual she performs to "feel a bit closer" to him.

Jane continued: "It's the first time I've written about Ed. How Can I Move On? is all about hearing his voice on a voicemail and wearing his sweater, just to feel a bit closer to him, then asking, 'How can I move on?'"

When it comes to another track, Beautiful Soul, she admitted she doesn't yet know how she is "going to sing that." However, she recognised that she is the "channel" for others, and the song is for people to "remember their loved ones."

Jane also shared that her live shows are "emotional" but also offer plenty of "laughter" and "disco." She is preparing for a 2026 UK tour to promote the album, beginning in Derby on August 28 and concluding in Leeds on September 26.

Reflecting on the making of the album, she told James Martin's Saturday Morning: "I started writing [the album] and all of a sudden I said, 'This sounds a bit country.' So I said, 'Why don't we go to Nashville to do it?' and we had the most amazing time."