SAVED LOVERS BY MY
Widow’s solace with 3 fellas after hubby dies
A WIDOW given permission to “cheat” by her partner before he died said she’d been saved by her lovers.
Ex-hairdresser Debbie Dowsett and Tony Williams agreed to have an “open” relationship several years before he fell ill.
They signed up to websites, including Illicit Encounters, and between them had at least 25 flings.
With Tony’s blessing, she chatted to other men online while he was in hospital after a heart op. He died in January last year at 62.
Debbie, 48, of Hainault, northeast London, has since found solace with three of the men she befriended. She said: “They have been my support network. They check in by text to make sure I’m OK – they’ve been in it with me.”
Debbie added: “It means a lot because then I’m not so alone.”
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ON the evening of April 15, 1984, comic legend Tommy Cooper donned his trademark red fez and walked on to stage to deliver yet another hilarious performance.
But halfway through his magic cloak routine, broadcast live from Her Majesty’s Theatre in London, the 6ft 4in funnyman suddenly fell backwards, slumping to the floor against the curtain.
Famed for his slapstick antics – and introducing new material at the last minute – both the audience and backstage staff laughed heartily, thinking it was all part of Tommy’s act.
At home, millions watching the show on the box chuckled along too.
In fact, the star – born 100 years ago this week – had suffered a massive heart attack.
Realising, with horror, that this was not a joke after all, TV bosses cut to an advertising break.
Tommy, 63, was declared dead on arrival at Westminster Hospital in central London.
Family, friends and fans were left devastated by the shattering news.
The comedy icon had apparently gone, in the words of his famous catchphrase, “Jus’ like that!”
It was a tragic end for the star, once voted the funniest Briton of all time and still adored by millions of fans today, including celebrity devotees such as Sir Anthony Hopkins.
But Tommy had led a troubled while keeping the nation smiling.
Behind the mask of mirth was a story of heavy boozing, smoking and ill health. He cheated on his wife variety life and there were behaviour too.
Born Thomas Frederick Cooper in Caerphilly, south Wales, on March 19, 1921, the son of a World War One veteran, he became obsessed with magic, aged eight, when his aunt Lucy bought him a set of tricks.
Tommy’s first real taste of performing came entertaining soldiers during World War Two, while serving with Field Marshal Montgomery’s Desert
Rats in North Africa.
It was during one sketch for troops that he picked up his trademark fez.
He’d forgotten the pith helmet he normally wore, so plucked the hat from a passing waiter, leaving the audience in stitches – and wore one from then on for his act.
After the war, Tommy became a top member of the Magic
Circle, but noticed that messing up his tricks got extra laughs.
So he decided to build a career combining clever conjuring with a genius for comic bumbling.
The
BBC’S accusations of violent initial assessment of him was “unpleasant” but by the 1950s Tommy was a hit in variety shows and soon got his own TV show, becoming a regular on screens for the next three decades.
Tommy schmoozed with showbiz and got chummy with royalty.
He once cheekily asked the Queen whether she liked football. When she replied: “Not particularly,” Tommy asked: “Can I have your tickets for the Cup Final, then?”
His success was down to perfect comic timing and a unique physique – Tommy had size 13 feet, goggle eyes and a big moon face that fellow comic Spike Milligan would describe as “a cry for help”.
But the details of his personal life, behind the scenes, are enough to reduce anyone to tears.
Many of Tommy’s jokes were about booze: “I’m on a whisky diet. Last week I lost three days!”
The reality was that Tommy, who used drink to calm his stage nerves, was an alcoholic.
He once poured gin and tonic over his breakfast cereal, complaining that milk was full of cholesterol, and was known to knock back three bottles of Dubonnet in a sitting. Puffing on a whopping 40 cigars a day, Tommy took a medley of pills and suffered from sciatica, pals indigestion, bronchitis and circulation problems. In 1977, Tommy had his first heart attack in Rome. He was back on stage three months later and, though he ditched the cigars, continued to drink.
And he could be forgetful. In an appearance with TV’S Michael Parkinson he nearly guillotined the chat show star, after forgetting to operate a safety switch.
Tommy married Gwen in 1947 and the couple had two children.
But in 1967 Tommy started a 17-year affair with stage manager Mary Kay.
Gwen turned a blind eye to his infidelity, but did occasionally threaten to leave him.
She said: “There is one trick Tommy can do really well and that’s making a drink disappear.” Tommy is alleged to have been violent towards both women, though his daughter Vicky has insisted he was a “wonderful family man”.
He was also seriously mean, often failing to pay his joke writers or buy rounds despite making up to £10,000 a week.
Famously, he would tip taxi drivers with an envelope and the words “have a drink on me”. Inside they would find a tea bag.
On the night of Tommy’s death, compère Jimmy Tarbuck – who had been passing him props – was among those who didn’t realise, at first, that the star had died. He had to go on with the show, but was left stunned by what had happened to his pal: “It was a huge shock to everyone who’d been roaring with him right up until the very end.”
Daughter Vicky says that simply giving people something to smile about was what had always driven Tommy on: “That’s all he wanted to do, make people laugh.”