SIR Tom Jones has told how he blames himself for his wife's death.

The Voice UK coach, 78, opened up about the passing of Lady Melinda Rose Woodward, who died of lung cancer aged 75.

The couple were married for 59 years, and the star wishes he had intervened and made her seek treatment for her symptoms, which turned out to be terminal cancer.

When asked if he blames himself, he told Daily Star: "Yes."

Tom was by her side when she died from a “short but fierce” battle with cancer in April 2016.

The couple had one son, Mark Woodward, who was born in 1957.

The Welsh singer revealed that a favourite number of his late wife's - Bob Dylan's What Good Am I? - plagued him with guilt following her death.

Speaking to The Mirror, Jones said that the lyrics of the song made him question whether he had done enough for his partner of more than 50 years.
The song includes the lines: "What good am I, if I'm like all the rest? If I just turn away, when I see how you're dressed? If I shut myself off, so I can't hear you cry?"

He said: "I was reading into the lyrics, thinking: 'Jesus Christ, was I partly to blame? Should I have woken up before? You start to think: 'What if I had forced her to go to the doctors?' Because she didn't go.

"You think: 'Shit, maybe I should have said she had to.' So that song is very touching.
"That song is the one I was scared of. She loved it."

Linda stood by Tom throughout their marriage despite the lothario enjoying a string of affairs and admitting to sleeping with 250 women at the height of his fame.

In 2015, he was branded “sexist” after saying that Linda, who suffered from depression and emphysema, had “lost her spark”.

Linda and Tom enjoyed a private marriage and were rarely pictured together out in public.

Jones once described his marriage as “rock solid” despite his affairs, saying “all the rest was fun and games”.

Linda was crippled with Agoraphobia, a fear of going outside, in later life and friends say the private woman feared being gossiped about.

In a rare interview, “shy” Linda once said: “I feel alive when [Tom] comes through the door, whatever the time of day or night is.”

Close friends said she enjoyed housework, watching TV and drinking champagne.