'70s Icon Tom Jones Said This Woman Was The Love Of His Life

Tom Jones was a married man from 1957 all the way through 2016, when his wife Linda died from lung cancer. But in the nearly 60 years he was married, his childhood sweetheart wasn't exactly the only woman he was with. On the contrary, the popular '70s icon left his native Wales not only to conquer the admiration of fans throughout the world but also the hearts of women. However, despite his many well-documented affairs (more on this later), the singer always considered Linda to be his one true love. 

In fact, Jones has never loved anyone besides his wife, even though he played the field pretty intensely at the height of fame. "I'll never love again," he said on "The Joe Wicks Podcast" in 2021. Following Linda's death, Jones was romantically linked to Priscilla Presley, with whom he and Linda had been friends for years. But sources close to the ex-wife of Elvis Presley denied the rumors — while taking a jab at his philandering ways. "Tom does get naughty sometimes and jokes about romancing Priscilla, but she couldn't," an insider told Closer Weekly in 2019.

Jones revealed he still grieved his wife's absence, highlighting his wish to have her with him in his final chapter of life. "I'm glad we had our lives together, but I wish she was here now; we would be old together," he told Joe Wicks. Aside from the Priscilla speculation in the 2010s, Jones has seemingly remained enjoying his own company, which is a ways away from what he spent his youth doing.

Throughout his 59-year marriage to Linda (seen above), Tom Jones was involved in numerous high-profile affairs. He didn't pretend to be faithful, either. In his heyday, the Welsh singer boasted about sleeping with 250 groupies a year, even requesting two dressing rooms while on tour to have a dedicated space for the lady friends he made along the way. But beyond the one-night stands, Jones also racked up plenty of affairs.

Among the most notorious was his relationship with Mary Wilson of The Supremes between 1968 and 1970. The affair ended when Linda confronted — and threatened — her husband about it. In 1991, Jones played down the relationship. "[I] never had a serious affair," he said (via Express). He added that he never considered leaving Linda. "It's out of the question, so whatever has happened has always been causal," he said. To Wilson, on the other hand, the affair had been real. "I was in love with Tom Jones, I will say that, I cannot not say that because it is very true," she said.

Besides Wilson, Jones also had an affair with Marjorie Wallace, the first American to ever win Miss World in 1973, a title she later lost precisely because she had been caught with Jones while she was engaged to race car driver Peter Revson. Perhaps the affair with the most damning consequence was the one with American model Katherine Berkery in 1987, because it made him join the list of celebrities who had a love child with their mistresses. Linda stood by Jones through all of that and more, proving her endless loyalty to the singer.