COUPLE REMARRY Our two
Surrounded by their family in a blizzard of confetti, smiling Jan and rob Shakespeare begin an astonishing second marriage – against all the odds.
Because the couple’s first wedding took place in 1976 and ended in a painful divorce back in 2000.
And for nearly 15 years the pair, who had three children together, never spoke. They even stood at opposite sides of the football pitch whenever they watched youngest son Adam play.
They also managed to get through two of their boys’ weddings without saying a word to each other.
But it was tragedy that brought them back together, with Jan consoling Rob over the loss of his second wife.
It made the pair, now 61, realise life was too short for their rift to go on – and that the love sparked when they met at a Woolworths store as teenagers was still burning.
Rob says: “Jan was my first love and we will be growing old together as I definitely can’t afford another wedding – or a divorce.”
And Jan, who had the ceremony she dreamed of second time around in 2017, says: “We married in a registry office first time. This time I wore a big white dress and we got married in a church.
“Our children, 11 grandchildren and one great-grandchild were with us. It was perfect and I’m back with my best friend.”
For years we didn’t speak to each other. Not even at our two sons’ weddings
WIFE JAN on rift between them after their divorce
Bodyguard
The lovebirds first met in 1974 in the days of flares and platforms at a Woollies store in Erdington, Birmingham. Jan worked in the office and Rob in the stockroom. Within a year they were dating.
Jan recalls: “Rob and I were just 16. I was a cashier and he was pretty much my bodyguard, going round the tills with me collecting money twice a day.
“He asked me out at a works Christmas dance. Our first date was watching a film we hadn’t realised was X-rated and there were quite a few men wearing flasher macs in the cinema.
“We had to leave but we didn’t stop laughing.”
The couple moved in together at 17. “I fell pregnant and our parents weren’t happy but it was planned,” Jan said. “We were excited about the future.
“We got married soon after I turned 18 in September 1976.
“I had a white dress, but not a proper wedding one, and I was fiveand-a-half months pregnant.”
Daughter Cara was born on Christmas Day and the couple went on to have Lee, now 38, and Adam, now 35.
But 23 years into their marriage, cracks started to show. Jan was made redundant from her job in Boots and started working shifts at another company. She and Rob barely saw each other.
She says: “I absolutely loved working at Boots and I think I had a bit of a breakdown after being made redundant.
“Rob was always saying he didn’t see enough of me in my new job. I was working until 11 at night. We started arguing about that a lot and I just got fed up. I left and we didn’t speak properly again for years.”
The couple separated in 1999 and Rob filed for a divorce, which came through in 2000.
Both met new partners and Rob remarried two-and-a-half years after their split.
Rob says: “I never thought I’d find love again, but I did. My second wife was an absolutely wonderful