Tom & Priscilla have always had a spark Singer Tony Christie is so pleased by old friends ’ new romance
THE world is all shook up by Tom Jones dating Priscilla Presley but a showbiz pal of the singer is not surprised.
Crooner Tony Christie, 73, reckons Sir Tom and Elvis Presley’s ex- wife have always had an attraction to each other.
And the (Is This The Way To) Amarillo singer could not be more delighted by the romance.
Tony and his wife Sue – who were at the West End show Beautiful: The Carole King Musical – suspected the Welsh legend and the US actress would be a great match.
Sue said: “I think they had a spark and had known each other for years. We’ve had friends who have got together later on in life.
“It’s really lovely, you should have somebody in your old age.”
Tony added: “It’s great.” The singer, who performed in an Elvis tribute in London’s Hyde Park a few years ago, recalled: “Priscilla was there and I sang Can’t Help Falling In Love With You.
“She tapped me on the shoulder and said ‘That was Elvis and my favourite song’.”
Nights
Sir Tom, 76, and Priscilla, 71, caused a stir last month when they pulled up in a Rolls-Royce for dinner at a Hollywood restaurant.
Onlookers were delighted to see the now silver-haired Sex Bomb singer step out of the car wearing blue suede shoes, the title of an early Elvis hit.
Sir Tom, whose wife of 59 years, Linda, died in April, has been on a string of dates with Priscilla.
He became friends with Elvis in the mid-60s after a meeting in Los Angeles. Earlier this week, Sir Tom said: “We have been friends for a long time. She’s a lovely lady. We do enjoy our nights out together.”
Priscilla has had a successful acting career with starring roles in the Naked Gun films and the TV soap Dallas.las. She was married to Elvis in 1967. They ey h hada d daughter Lisasa Marie, now 49, in 196868 but the marriage ended in divorce in 1973.973.
Four years s later Elvis, one of the best-sellingest-selling solo artists of all time, was found slumpeded in a bathroom of his Memphis mansion after a heart attack and pronounced dead at hospital aged just 42. Priscilla never remarried but went on to have a relationship with US businessman Marco Garibaldi, the father of her musician son Navarone, 29. Voice UK coach Sir Tom, whose hits include It’s Not Unusual and Delilah, marrie married childhood sweetheart Lind Linda in 1957 when they were both 16. They rema remained wed until her death de despite Sir Tom’s numerous in infidelities. He admitted slee sleeping with up to 250 women a year at the height of his fa fame. He had a two two-year fling with Mary Wil Wilson of The Suprem Supremes. But when L Linda was about t to discover his a affair with then Miss World Marjorie Wallace, he broke up with the beauty queen.
Sir Tom said of his love for Linda: “It was solid. We had a solid marriage that nothing could shake and we both felt that.
“I felt very lucky to have fallen in love early. We were teenagers, we fell in love, not just in lust.”
Secret
Meanwhile Tony joked the secret to his 48-year marriage to Sue was because: “I keep my mouth shut”.
She said: “We have been together 50 years and married for 49 years in two weeks.
“We never get bored of each other, he makes me laugh and he makes me cross. It’s lovely. We have the music and it brings back all these wonderful memories.”