confessed she felt like “a product, not a wife” to her husband Henrik Brixen.
Brixen was Jane’s manager when they tied the knot back in 1998 before calling it quits and getting divorced in 2003. Later, Jane moved on with her soulmate and life partner Eddie Rothe before his death in 2021.
Born in Denmark, Henrik was originally a plumbing engineer on a ship before he became Jane’s manager. The pair even detailed their glamorous wedding in a documentary – The Cruise Special: Jane Ties the Knot. Later, Henrik confessed he knew next to nothing about the music industry despite volunteering himself to run his wife’s career.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, Jane made a heartbreaking confession about her marriage to Henrik, admitting: “I’m always working two jobs: TV and travel, singing and touring. I’ve been lucky but it hasn’t been an easy ride.
“This industry can be ruthless. How? Well, my former husband, Henrik Brixen, was my manager, for example. He’s a lovely man but it was difficult. I became the product, not the wife. One minute you’re golden, the next you lose everything.”
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Jane McDonald made a heartbreaking admission (Image: Getty)
Jane said she and Henrik divorced mainly to “save her career”. Jane confessed he “tried his best” in the showbiz industry but “didn’t know” enough about it. She explained to The Mirror: “We’d come to a point where Henrik had made quite a few enemies, and he said, ‘If I don’t leave you, you are never going to have a career’.”
Jane added: “That is why I never talk about Henrik in a bad light at all. He was the one that walked out of the marriage to save my career!”
She and Henrik never had children, with Jane admitting in her 2019 autobiography Riding the Waves: My Story: “Henrik and I once talked about having children but there wasn’t room for babies in his plans for me. I began to feel lonely in my marriage.”
Jane was married from 1998 until 2003 (Image: PA)
She explained: “Your manager is your boss and tells you what to do, what to wear and who to be, so our relationship changed. I loved him with all my heart, but felt he’d stopped looking at me as a wife. I became a product.
“I lost confidence and became introverted. Eventually, I came to the devastating conclusion that I really did have nothing left. I told Henrik, ‘I’m firing you as my manager.'”