Paul O'Grady's secret wife has spoken of her sadness following her beloved friend's death.
Teresa Fernandes was secretly married to the popular TV star for 28 years and told the Daily Mail: "We probably enjoyed one of the longest marriages in showbiz." Paul, an openly gay man, previously admitted he had married Teresa, who was Portuguese, in 1977 to stop her from being deported.
He met her in a gay club where they worked, and he decided to marry her out of "convenience" and to stop her being "hassled" by her family. They legally divorced in 2005 after being married for 28 years, but Paul said he had never been in a relationship with her.
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Speaking about the marriage, Paul said: "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."
He also admitted he had forgotten he had married the barmaid all those years ago, until his manager Brendan reminded him. His manager had told him: "If anything happened to you, everything would go to your wife. It's like a real-life Corrie storyline."
The Radio 2 star went on to marry Brazilian ballet dancer Andre Portasio in 2017, after meeting at London-based gay club Showplace and becoming friends, reports The Mirror.
Speaking about their marriage, Teresa admitted they never slept or lived together. She also told how the pair carried on working after they got married but then eventually drifted apart and had other partners.
Theresa thinks she last saw Paul in the 1980s while he was performing at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern where the pair caught up about the past. They were eventually divorced and the date on the papers was Valentine's Day, February 14, 2005.
She said: "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."
Paul, who rose to fame as Lily Savage before going on to host a string of television programmes, died "unexpectedly but peacefully" at his home on March 28 at the age of 67.
A private funeral was held at St Rumwold's Church in the village of Bonnington in Kent on Thursday afternoon, before mourners went to a wake at Port Lympne Safari Park. The service featured a series of personal tributes to the entertainer, including a bronze statue of his beloved late dog Buster that had been placed on a leopard-print throw.
Among those who attended were comedian Julian Clary, actress Dame Sheila Hancock, Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood and comedian Alan Carr. The Salvation Army Band played songs such as Tomorrow from the musical Annie - in which O'Grady was starring in a touring production at the time of his death.
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