{"id":259818,"date":"2026-01-23T13:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T13:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/259818\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T13:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T13:30:11","slug":"my-sister-was-shouting-mums-gone-mums-gone-it-was-horrific-vinnie-jones-opens-up-on-his-mothers-death-for-the-first-time-and-reveals-how-his-new-younger-girlfriend-has-become-his-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/259818\/","title":{"rendered":"My sister was shouting ‘Mum’s gone, mum’s gone’. It was horrific: VINNIE JONES opens up on his mother’s death for the first time – and reveals how his new, younger girlfriend has become his ‘rock’"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a scene in the new series of Vinnie Jones In The Country where the footballer-turned-country squire has the brainwave (nicked from his pal Guy Ritchie<\/a>) to build a mini-beach on his farm in Petworth, West Sussex. To get from his house to the beach he decides to cut a pathway through the dense undergrowth, and he has the bright idea to enlist goats to munch their way through the brush in order to create said trail.<\/p>\n

His good friend Wobbly \u2013 aka Paul Worby, his trusted sidekick on the show, as well as the man usually called upon to put Vinnie\u2019s ideas into practice \u2013 lets out an exasperated sigh. The only flaw in Vinnie\u2019s otherwise genius plan to use the animals, he remarks, is that it will be practically impossible to \u2018keep goats eating in a straight line from Point A to Point B\u2019.<\/p>\n

The same could probably be said of the Discovery+ series itself which, much like Vinnie\u2019s goats, has forged its own unexpected path. What started in 2023 as a fun show with Vinnie and long-suffering Wobbly renovating the star\u2019s 2,000-acre estate has now become something of a forum for men to freely discuss their mental health.<\/p>\n

While fishing and chatting with chums such as former footballer Paul Gascoigne<\/a> and, in this new third series, singer Rag\u2019n\u2019Bone Man, the chaps open up about issues such as sobriety, depression<\/a> and grief. After an episode where Vinnie talked about how he kept going through difficult times, one viewer turned up at the farm. \u2018He said, \u201cYou saved my life,\u201d\u2019 Vinnie says proudly. \u2018And I\u2019ve got to tell you, there\u2019s a lot of guys doing that. There\u2019s a lot of mental health issues in the countryside and I\u2019ve got people ringing me constantly, saying, \u201cCan I have a chat?\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n

Does he actually let people come to his house to talk over a cuppa? \u2018Course I do,\u2019 he replies, baffled by my surprise. \u2018It\u2019s like watering a flower that\u2019s wilted and bringing it back to life. That\u2019s what I try to do for people now.\u2019<\/p>\n

Anyone versed in Vinnie Jones folklore would be more likely to envisage him biting the head off a flower than watering it \u2013 or as he more colourfully puts it, \u2018I was portrayed as this f***ing lunatic that went round and headbutted everybody.\u2019<\/p>\n

As a hard-tackling midfielder for Wimbledon during the late 80s, he was part of the club\u2019s \u2018Crazy Gang\u2019, a group of players known for their boozy, madcap antics<\/a>. While they famously upset the odds by beating league champions Liverpool in the 1988 FA Cup Final, the defining photo of his career was from the same year, showing him grabbing hold of Paul Gascoigne\u2019s privates during a match against Newcastle United with all the zeal of a drowning man grabbing hold of a life raft.<\/p>\n

\"Vinnie <\/p>\n

Vinnie with Emma Ford. The pair have been dating for the past couple of years<\/p>\n

\"Vinnie <\/p>\n

Vinnie in his first acting role as mob enforcer Big Chris in Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels<\/p>\n

In 1992 Vinnie was fined \u00a320,000 by the FA for bringing the game into disrepute by presenting a video called Soccer\u2019s Hard Men, a compilation of clips that many commentators said glorified foul play. But the tape caught the eye of film director Guy Ritchie, who subsequently cast Vinnie in his debut role as mob enforcer Big Chris in the 1998 smash hit movie Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Starring roles in films such as Snatch with Brad Pitt and X-Men: The Last Stand alongside Hugh Jackman followed, but while Vinnie seamlessly made the transition from footballer to bona fide Hollywood star, his drinking started to veer out of control.<\/p>\n

He eventually gave up alcohol in 2013, but six years later was dealt a huge blow when his beloved wife of 25 years, Tanya, died from skin cancer that had spread to her brain. The honesty with which he spoke publicly of his grief moved many \u2013 so much so that now, at 61, the one-time \u2018lunatic\u2019 is a respected ambassador for men\u2019s mental health.<\/p>\n

As a transformation, it has been nothing short of remarkable and no one was prouder of his achievements than his mum Glenda. As he reveals in the new series, she died a few months ago of a heart attack aged 80 and the grief, he admits, is like \u2018a blanket that some invisible person throws over you. You\u2019re never going to see your mum again and your brain just can\u2019t figure it out.\u2019<\/p>\n

He was in London filming the second series of Guy Ritchie crime caper The Gentlemen for Netflix when he heard the news. \u2018I pulled up by the trailer at seven o\u2019clock in the morning and my phone went and it was my sister just shouting, \u201cMum\u2019s gone. Mum\u2019s gone.\u201d It was quite horrific.\u2019 Everyone on set told him to go home, \u2018but I said, \u201cNo way,\u201d and I stayed at work. I find that if you just get your head down and keep swinging, you\u2019ll get through it.\u2019<\/p>\n

The countryside has always provided Vinnie with solace and he found that\u2019s where \u2018you can kind of kneel down and have a bit of a cry and hold your head\u2019.<\/p>\n

Glenda and Vinnie\u2019s dad Peter, a former gamekeeper, divorced when Vinnie was 12 \u2013 \u2018I gave her away on my 18th birthday to her new husband,\u2019 he says \u2013 and mother and son were extremely close. \u2018When I went to premieres of Snatch and stuff like that, she would shake. She\u2019d say, \u201cYou just don\u2019t know how proud I am.\u201d She was from a little town in Wiltshire and she couldn\u2019t comprehend it all.\u2019 She got to meet his Hollywood pals such as Lock, Stock co-star Jason Statham. \u2018And they all loved her. She was never pretentious, she was never loud. Until she had a drink,\u2019 he laughs, \u2018and then she was like me!\u2019<\/p>\n

Did losing his mother bring to the surface all the feelings of grief he had experienced with Tanya? \u2018No, it was different. With Tanya, there was a lot of anger and a lot of giving up, and I had to get out of that,\u2019 he says.<\/p>\n

\"Vinnie <\/p>\n

Vinnie with his late mother Glenda in 2003<\/p>\n

\"Vinnie <\/p>\n

Vinnie Jones and Tanya, his wife of 25 years. Tanya died from cancer in 2019<\/p>\n

He and Tanya dated as teenagers in Watford, drifted apart and had children with other partners \u2013 Vinnie a son, Aaron, now 34, and Tanya a daughter, Kaley, 38 \u2013 but got back together and married in 1994.<\/p>\n

\u2018When you\u2019re with someone for 30 years, every day generally, and then that person just disappears off the planet and it\u2019s the first time it happens to you, that\u2019s your coping mechanism,\u2019 he says of his despair. \u2018You get this anger, this wanting, this screaming and shouting and tears and disbelief.\u2019<\/p>\n

When his mum passed away, however, \u2018I\u2019d already read that book. It wasn\u2019t as shocking.\u2019 Now, when the blanket of grief descends, as it did with his mum\u2019s passing, \u2018I\u2019ll go and do something. I\u2019ll get the dog, I\u2019ll go for a walk, go and get my hair cut\u2026 something like that.\u2019 Does he still talk to his late wife? \u2018Yeah,\u2019 he admits. \u2018You know, I make my bed every day and at certain times I do, yeah.\u2019<\/p>\n

Given that one viewer claimed In The Country had saved his life, has Vinnie himself ever had suicidal feelings? \u2018Many years ago when I was footballing, and it was all through the drink\u2026 The anxiety and everything else that goes with drinking pulls you down and I would say there\u2019s a big proportion of suicides that are alcohol-built.\u2019<\/p>\n

A \u2018social alcoholic\u2019 rather than someone who \u2018woke up and drank a bottle of vodka\u2019, he imbibed \u2018for the high, for the sugar, for the buzz and to get me through that first two hours of being, \u201cF***ing hell, he\u2019s nuts!\u201d But after that two hours of being funny and nuts and making people laugh, I became\u2026 an a***hole.\u2019<\/p>\n

After appearing in the Royal Variety Performance in 2001, he ended up in Elton John\u2019s dressing room. \u2018Obviously he wasn\u2019t drinking [Elton got sober in 1990], so I helped myself to two or three bottles of red wine.\u2019 When the time came to be introduced to the Queen, \u2018I was leaning to one side and Samantha Mumba was holding me up on her arm. The Queen came along and shook my hand, and I said, \u201cMa\u2019am, are you using your Cup Final tickets this year?\u201d and she said, \u201cExcuse me?\u201d and I said, \u201cWell, if you\u2019re not, I can get you a few quid for them.\u201d\u2019 Her Majesty promptly walked off. \u2018She didn\u2019t understand the humour.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"Vinnie, <\/p>\n

Vinnie, his dog Pip and singer\u00a0Rag’n’Bone Man for the latest series of In The Country<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The countryside has always provided Vinnie with solace<\/p>\n

It was after he was reported to the FA for biting a reporter\u2019s nose in a Dublin bar in 1995 that thoughts of suicide flashed through his mind. \u2018When I sobered up, that\u2019s when the walls came in on me and the reality of what I\u2019d done being drunk.\u2019<\/p>\n

Though the suicidal feelings eventually passed, the drinking continued until, in 2013, at the age of 48, he got sober. \u2018We\u2019ve all got a dog and your dog is your ego,\u2019 he says. \u2018I went to a psychologist and he said, \u201cYour dog, Vin, it\u2019s massive.\u201d Guy Ritchie said the same to me. \u201cVin, your dog is out of control.\u201d And the source of it was alcohol.\u2019<\/p>\n

By giving up drink, \u2018you get back your humanity, your morals and your true self,\u2019 he says. Certainly, it\u2019s hard to square the aggressive Vinnie of old with the chap in front of me, and while many a salty word emanates from his handsome, battered face, he is otherwise charm itself. The only regret he has with regards to going sober, he admits, is that he didn\u2019t do it ten years earlier.<\/p>\n

\u2018A lot of people go to AA and do the 12 Steps, but my way of doing it was, \u201cI\u2019ve caused enough b****cks in this life of mine for 48 years and I\u2019m done.\u201d I\u2019ve won the FA Cup, I\u2019ve won the league with Leeds United and I conquered alcohol. They\u2019re probably the biggest three triumphs of my life.\u2019<\/p>\n

Nowadays, while he\u2019s not quite the poster boy for kale-eating good living (\u2018I like my steak pies too much\u2019), he has adopted a healthier lifestyle thanks to the fact that, \u2018I\u2019ve got this young lady who\u2019s a home cook and makes me go out there and do the walking and everything else.\u2019<\/p>\n

Fans of the show will already know that the young lady in question is Emma Ford, 48, who he initially hired as his PA and has been dating for the past couple of years.<\/p>\n

\u2018She\u2019s got a great spirit and we kind of thank the universe every day for such a wonderful existence,\u2019 he says. \u2018It\u2019s just really nice being in this situation where we\u2019ve got a nice bit of work, we\u2019ve got a nice little show going on and we\u2019ve got each other. She\u2019s been an absolute rock to me, so it\u2019s fantastic.\u2019 After being so devoted to Tanya, did he feel guilt at experiencing happiness with someone new? \u2018That\u2019s part of the process,\u2019 he says. \u2018That\u2019s part of the five things you experience with grief. But I\u2019m very content\u2026 I wake up every day and say, \u201cThank you, Lord.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n

While they have a place in Palm Springs, California, most of the couple\u2019s time is spent in the UK, where the bulk of Vinnie\u2019s work is. As well as the second series of the critically acclaimed show The Gentlemen later this year, in which Vinnie plays Geoff, the tough but loyal gamekeeper to Theo James\u2019s Duke of Halstead, he\u2019s also due to start filming the movie Viva La Madness. A Guy Ritchie gangster film that will reunite him with Jason Statham, it promises to be \u2018loud, fast and unapologetically patriotic\u2019 \u2013 a phrase that could easily be applied to Mr Jones himself.<\/p>\n

Does he think he\u2019ll ever be knighted like his good pal David Beckham? \u2018Not in a million years. But I think it would be a monumental thing for me to get an MBE or OBE or something like that. I\u2019m not looking for it, but if I keep helping people in the mental health area, that would be a massive moment in my life to get something like that as recognition. It kind of makes you part of the British Empire, doesn\u2019t it? Like you\u2019re in the club somehow.\u2019<\/p>\n

Who knows? It might even persuade King Charles to part with his FA Cup Final tickets.<\/p>\n

Series 3 of Vinnie Jones In The Country airs from February 2 on Discovery+.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a scene in the new series of Vinnie Jones In The Country where the footballer-turned-country squire has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[539,93,58203,61,60,282],"class_list":["post-259818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-dailymail","tag-entertainment","tag-guy-ritchie","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}