James Major’s ex-wife ‘doing very well’ after heart surgery
Sir John Major’s former daughter-in-law, Emma Noble, has undergone heart surgery at the age of 46. Her devastated second husband Conrad Baker, who has been holding a bedside hospital vigil, tells me that the operation was caused by an underlying condition.
‘She had the heart operation this morning and she’s doing very well,’ he tells me. ‘The details are difficult to explain, but it should make her life easier.
‘it’s been a worrying time, but she is being well looked after.’
Earlier, he sent out a message to wellwishers, thanking them for their ‘kind words and wishes for my beautiful and brave wife, Em. She is out of theatre and doing really well.
‘As some of you may know, Emma has been unwell for a while; it’s been a really tough time for her. But this is a positive step forward.’
By bizarre coincidence, Emma’s first husband, James Major, also suffers from a heart condition. He had a pacemaker fitted to correct an irregular heartbeat when he was just 24 in 1999.
Emma (pictured) was best known for her role as a hostess on the TV game show The Price is right when she met James.
They got engaged three months later and married in the Palace of Westminster in 1999 in a lavish ceremony that earned them £400,000 from Hello! The couple had a son, Harry. However, the union ended in an acrimonious divorce in 2004. Noble was alleged to have cheated with actor Graham McGrath, her co-star on former iTV soap Crossroads, which she denied. in 2007, Emma spoke about the pressures of bringing up her autistic son as a single parent. The following year, she claimed that Sir John and Lady Major took little interest in their grandchild, failing even to send him a birthday card. The allegations were rejected as ‘wholly false and hurtful’ by James. Emma wed businessman Conrad in 2013 at Canterbury Cathedral and Harry walked her up the aisle.
James later married Kate Dorrell, the woman he fell for when she was the married deputy head at Harry’s school in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire.