The nation said goodbye to much-loved TV star Paul O’Grady as he was laid to rest on Thursday (April 20). Now, O’Grady’s wife of nearly 30 years has spoken out following his sudden death.
Teresa Fernandes was married to the Blankety Blank presenter for 28 years and has now spoken about her sadness over his passing.
READ MORE: Paul O'Grady's funeral in pictures as TV star's dog leads funeral cortege
Paul, 67, who was an openly gay man, has previously spoken about his marriage to his Portuguese ex-wife, whom he married in 1977 to reportedly stop her from being deported from the UK.
"We probably enjoyed one of the longest marriages in showbiz!" she told the Daily Mail.
"Paul was a very special, close friend of mine, but we didn't really love each other.
"I was lesbian and he was gay so the marriage would never have worked but we had a great time as friends and even though it was almost 50 years ago I have great memories,'" the 73-year-old recalled.
Teresa, who divides her time between London and her birthplace Lisbon, although they had drifted "apart and was not present at his funeral", she was deeply saddened to hear of his passing.
"Of course I was sad when I heard Paul had died, he was always a good friend but I hadn't seen him since the early 1980s. We just drifted apart at around the time he started to get famous, but I didn't go to the funeral because it's too far for me to travel."
In his autobiography, The Devil Rides Out, published in 1998, Paul talks about how he proposed a "marriage of convenience" to please her mother Maria and also solve the dilemma of her soon to be expired visa.
"Teresa, I call her the lesbian Portuguese barmaid, was lovely. She looked like David Cassidy. We worked in a club in Westbourne Grove, London, when I was 22.
"She was from a very strict Catholic family and was always being hassled by them: 'Why aren't you getting married?' So I said: 'Come on then, we'll get married', and we did. We were married for 28 years."
However, Maria who is retired hotel worker says, "only one part of that is true."
"Yes my mother was chasing me to get married, but my papers were always in order, I was never going to be kicked out," she says.
"Paul always made me laugh and I always used to say he would make someone very happy and he was a lovely man, we had such a good friendship and it's shame we drifted apart.
"'Him offering to marry me to help me out was just one of those things that Paul would do, he would help anyone, he was very kind natured and you can see that, he would help anyone if they need it.
"I was sad when I heard he had died, I was surprised though because every time I saw him on the TV and in the newspapers he always looked so good and he was still young, he wasn't old like me at all."
The pair legally divorced in 2005 and lost contact on the way. The marriage was never consummated and Paul said he had never been in a relationship with her.
He also admitted he had forgotten about the marriage until his manager reminded him, saying: "If anything happened to you, everything would go to your wife. It's like a real-life Corrie storyline."
Paul married former professional ballet dancer Andre Portasio in 2017, who he began dating some 11 years before their marriage.
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