I nearly drowned on holiday, says Tom
SINGING legend Sir Tom Jones has told of how he nearly died after deciding to go swimming alone while on holiday in Acapulco.
The 80-year-old music icon from Pontypridd revealed that, while staying at the Mexican beach resort in the late ‘60s, he’d wandered away from the lagoon where his friends were holding a barbeque and clambered down to the sea.
“I looked out at the water and it was lovely and calm, so I started swimming out,” said the star.
“I go out past the breakers and (the next thing I know) someone’s come looking for me and they’re standing on the beach shouting to me.”
Sir Tom added that it was only when he turned around to look that he realised how far out he’d swum.
However, its when he attempted to head back to shore that he discovered he was caught in a riptide and in real trouble.
“So I put my head down, as you do, but when I came back I hadn’t moved an inch.
“I thought to myself, ‘This is it now’, and I was going to give up.”
Speaking on Alan Carr’s Life’s A Beach podcast last week, Tom said it was at that point he put his hand to his chest and realised he was still wearing his crucifix necklace.
“Now I always took my jewellery off (before a swim) and put it in my bag – my man bag – but for some unknown reason I hadn’t taken my cross and chain off.
“So I said, ‘God please, I’m desperate here. What do I do?’”
He added that he heard a voice telling him, ‘If you think you can swim, now is the time to prove it.’
“So I thought, ‘Right, it’s s*** or bust’ and I headed towards the beach, going like the clappers.”
Thankfully, a wave deposited Tom safely onto the sand and he was able to rejoin his friends.
“I went back to where they were having the barbeque and they asked me where I’d been,” he said.
“I told them I’d gone in the sea for
a dip and they replied, “In the ocean? Tom, there are sharks out there. That’s why we come to the lagoon.”
Tom added that he’s since talked to ‘serious swimmers’ about that day and they’ve told him he must have had ‘divine intervention’ to have made it back to shore given the strength of the undertow in the area.
“It taught me an important lesson – never go wandering off by yourself,” he said.