Shane MacGowan’s widow has opened up about the “unglamorous” side of being with The Pogues singer and how they survived infidelity in their nearly 40-year relationship.
Victoria Mary Clarke, 58, from Dublin, met her late husband when she was 16 at the Royal Oak pub in north London in December 1982.
The couple, who had an eight-year age gap, began dating in 1986 and married in 2018, celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary just days before Shane died last year.
Appearing in the last episode of the what a woman podcastVictoria opened up about their on-off relationship and how Shane would be regularly attacked on the streets of London at the height of his fame.
Speaking about their initial relationship, Victoria, who is an artist and writer, explained: “My life completely changed when I met him and it was like that missing part of my life had arrived.”
Undated photo Victoria shared of herself and Shane MacGowan following the death of The Pogue singer in November 2023.
Victoria went on to explain that they had “pure, unconditional love” for each other, which meant they were “incapable of holding a grudge.”
She said: ‘We both did things that other couples would completely break up over. Being unfaithful to each other, most people would think that’s a deal breaker.
“But we absolutely, completely, absolutely loved each other.”
Although Victoria didn’t delve into the details of his infidelities, Shane told the Observer in 2000 that he had a child with another woman.
When asked if he felt like a ‘bad Catholic’ for not having children, the singer replied: ‘I don’t know. I only know one. He is a young man. He lives in Scotland. He knows where to find me.
I saw him once, when I was three years old. He knows I’m his father. Years ago, (mother) Lesley and I agreed that whenever he wanted to come see me, he could come see me and I would take him out for a drink and get him whatever he wanted. But she married a good man and he seems to be satisfied with him as a father.
Elsewhere in the podcast, Victoria revealed how “anti-Irish” sentiment among people in the UK also made life difficult in the 1980s.
She said: ‘We were physically attacked regularly. I got used to waiting for it to happen. We could be walking down the street and a group of guys would jump up and start punching him or trying to fight him.
Pictured: Victoria Mary Clarke and Shane MacGown of The Pogues on their wedding day in November 2018.
The couple (pictured), who had an eight-year age difference, began dating in 1986 and married in 2018.
“But he was a good fighter and always fought with great enthusiasm.” I never saw him defeated in a fight, but it was something he expected.
In addition to this, Victoria also recalled that Shane “never seemed respectable”, which made hailing a taxi a challenge.
She said: ‘He dressed like someone who lived on the streets essentially, he always had holes in his clothes and shoes. She had cigarette ash and vomit everywhere, so she never seemed respectable.
«Many times the taxi drivers just passed by. So he had to hide and I had to stop the taxi and then he would jump out and the driver would say, “no buddy, you’re not coming in my taxi.”
“We would be kicked out of restaurants and off planes. People would be offended by him on a plane and say he’d obviously been drinking so we’d have to get off and wait for the next plane. There were a lot of prejudices and a lot of challenges. It wasn’t all glamorous.”
Although Victoria did not delve into the details of his infidelities, Shane (pictured) told the Observer in 2000 that he fathered a child with another woman.
Shane MacGowan with his girlfriend, journalist Victoria Mary Clarke, at a party for the documentary ‘The Clash: Westway to the World’ in 1999
What’s more, Victoria also revealed how she spent most of their relationship worried about Shane’s health, as the singer suffered from health problems related to his years of alcohol and substance abuse in his later years.
The widow added: “It’s something I had feared for a long time because as soon as we got together people told me he didn’t have long to live (in the 1980s).
“I spent most of the time worrying about him and worrying that something was going to happen to him.”
In addition to being wheelchair-bound, the singer had also been battling viral encephalitis, a disease that causes inflammation in the brain, for eight years.
Despite the singer’s years of poor health, Victoria said Shane’s death from pneumonia still came as a shock to her.
She continued: ‘He never actually had a terminal or life-threatening illness. So I was hoping he would recover and so was he.
Pictured: Shane MacGown performing in Belgium in November 1989. He began dating Victoria three years earlier.
Pictured: Victoria Mary Clarke kissing her husband Shane MacGowan in hospital before his death in 2023.
‘So I think it was probably good for both of us because we didn’t act like he was dying. We had a bit of fun in the hospital and he got along really well with the staff, but he was looking forward to coming home.’
Announcing Shane’s death on social media, Victoria wrote at the time: ‘I don’t know how to say this so I’m just going to say it.
‘Shane, who will always be the light before me and the measure of my dreams and the love of my life and the most beautiful soul and the most beautiful angel and the sun and the moon and the beginning and the end of everything that appreciation. he has gone to be with Jesus and Mary and his beautiful mother Teresa.
“I feel blessed beyond words to have known him and to have loved him and to have been loved so infinitely and unconditionally by him and to have had so many years of life, love, joy, fun, laughter and so many adventures.”
Pictured: Shane MacGowan singing in a Waterstones in June 2007, where his partner Victoria Mary Clarke was reading from her book.
The couple (pictured), who had an eight-year age difference, began dating in 1986 and married in 2018.
Born in Kent to Irish parents on Christmas Day 1957, MacGowan in his autobiography described early childhood summers spent on an Irish farm with his family, drinking, smoking and singing traditional songs.
“It was like living in a pub,” he told The Guardian in 2013.
After winning a scholarship to the prestigious Westminster School in London, MacGowan struggled to fit in and was expelled two years later for drug use and began frequenting London bars with other musicians.
At age 17, his alcohol and drug abuse contributed to a mental breakdown and he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for six months.
After recovering, he embraced the eruption of punk in London in the late ’70s and early ’80s.
He brought traditional Irish music to a huge new audience in the late 1980s by marrying it with punk, and scored a big hit with his bittersweet, expletive-filled 1987 Christmas anthem with the Pogues.
writing in The Guardian In 2009, Victoria said: “Once we were together, I felt like my own life was subsumed by his.” This was a welcome feeling for me, as I preferred to live someone else’s life.
Pictured: Shane MacGowan in 1984 holding a mirrored plaque referencing the band’s 1984 album ‘Red Roses for Me’.
Pictured: Shane MacGowan with his friend Johnny Depp before his death from pneumonia in November 2023.
‘I took immediate responsibility for his moods and problems and dedicated myself to solving them and being his personal assistant as well as his lover. She adored him in every way possible.
‘In return, I felt like he gave me a sense of purpose, as well as a sense of being wanted. I belonged to him in a way I had never belonged to my family.’
It was a long courtship for the couple who did not get engaged until 2007 and did not marry for another 11 years.
They married in November 2018 at Copenhagen City Hall with Shane’s long-time friend Johnny Depp playing guitar during the low-key ceremony.
Shane’s wife announced in 2016 that he was sober for the “first time in several years” and explained how his drinking problem stemmed from years of “singing in bars and clubs where people go to drink and party.”
She claimed her spiral into alcohol addiction was due to the introduction of hard drugs, such as heroin.
The journalist said the singer became sober again after a long stay in the hospital when he suffered from pneumonia and a hip injury, and Shane continued his sobriety journey when he returned home.
In an interview with the Irish Mirror, Victoria said that she and Shane never had children together because they were too irresponsible.
She added that she was always worried that the musician would burn down the house because he always dropped his cigarettes.
Shane has suffered physically from years of heavy drinking and often performed drunk on stage.
He began drinking at the tender age of five, when his family gave him Guinness to help him sleep, and his father frequently took him to the local pub while drinking with his friends.