Jane McDonald breaks down in tears recounting ‘struggles’ in ‘very, very exhausting’ showbiz business – sobbing ‘I’ve been the underdog preventing all the best way’

Jane McDonald broke down in tears as she opened up on ‘struggling’ in the ‘very, very hard’ showbusiness industry, sobbing that she’s been the ‘underdog’ all the way.

The singer and presenter has let cameras follow her to Nashville in a new Channel 5 series as she showcases the sights, sounds and stories about the home of country music. 

Jane, 63, also travelled to the American city to record her new album, Living the Dream, which was released in March and featured 13 new tracks. 

In the first episode of Jane McDonald in Nashville, the former The Cruise star visited the iconic Blackbird Studio, where she told audiences ‘her country music dreams are being made’, recording the album with the help of a group of musicians. 

The Blackbird Studio has previously welcomed artists including Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Mariah Carey and John Mayer to record their albums there. 

She explained: ‘I’m going to let you into a little secret. I’ve come to Nashville because I was making a new album, and when I started writing I realised there was like a country feel.

‘For many years people have been telling me I should be a country singer and my dad always said ‘you should be a country singer’ and that was years ago. But if I’m honest I never gave it much thought until now.

‘It’s only taken me 27 years to finally come round to doing what I maybe should have been doing all along.’

Heading into the studios, Jane told viewers: ‘Today the musicians, the engineers and the producers are mixing the songs. This is the part of the process where it all comes together and I’m not going to lie, it’s all a bit nerve-wracking.’

Later breaking down in tears, she continued: ‘It’s blown my mind a little bit really. When I started here I thought “what am I doing?” 

‘I’ve always felt my heart is in country as I’m a story teller. And when I write songs I write a story and this is my story.

‘All of my life I’ve sort of been the underdog. Never give up, If I’ve learned anything form being in Nashville I just never gave up. 

‘I fought all the way through. It’s been a struggle. I’m not going to lie. This industry is hard – very, very hard.’

It comes after Jane revealed the brutal moment she got rejected from pop group Bucks Fizz because of her appearance, explaining she was left ‘gutted’. 

The TV presenter and singer took to The One Show last month to discuss the release of her new album, Living the Dream, which climbed to the number-five spot in the UK’s listening charts after its release. 

She performed her new song Beautiful Soul as part of the BBC One show, and spilled details on her long career in showbusiness, looking back over the highlights of her rise to fame in an emotional VT shown on air. 

Jane was quizzed by hosts Alex Jones and JB Gill about how life could have been ‘very different’ for her had she landed a role in a pop band in her early career. 

It was then that Jane spilled she got rejected from Eurovision Song Contest band Bucks Fizz – because of the colour of her hair.  

She said: ‘Yes, I went for an audition for Bucks Fizz when I was younger and I got down to the last ten, and I thought, “I’m in here”. 

‘They said, “No, we want a blonde”, and so I said “Couldn’t you have told me that when I was in the top 100?” – because there were queues all down the street to get into Bucks Fizz. 

‘I’d have loved to, but anyone, I’ve done alright so I’m okay.’

Jane went on to talk about her new album, explaining: ‘It’s not a country album, it’s country inspired, but I went to Nashville to record it, and we made a TV show.

‘Channel 5 are going to show that on April 9 and 10, which is very exciting. It was an absolutely incredible thing!

‘We booked the Blackbird Studio, which is iconic, and I sat in the same chair as Taylor Swift when she did her album! I actually thought to myself, “What the heck am I doing here?” But just wow, just a wow, wow moment.’ 

It comes after Jane confessed that she was never in love with her ex-husband Henrik Brixen, and says his decision to end their marriage was ‘the best thing he ever did.’

The singer was married to the Danish ship plumbing engineer for eight years, with him going on to become her manager during their relationship.

But despite the lengthy relationship, Jane has shared that she was ‘the only one’ who didn’t realise she had no feelings for her ex-husband.

She noted that while he was her manager, Henrik was reluctant to ‘play the game’ in the music industry.

Following her split from Henrik in 2003, Jane rekindled a relationship with her teenage sweetheart Eddie Rothe, but he sadly died of lung cancer in 2021.

Jane shared insight into her marriage to Henrik while reflecting on her Las Vegas shows in 2001. 

She told Jessie and Lennie Ware on the Table Manners podcast: ‘It’s really strange this, because I should have had the best time of my life. I just got to Vegas, but I knew my marriage was on the brink.’

Calling Henrik a ‘nice guy,’ the singer said they had tied the knot ‘very publicly,’ but admitted she wasn’t ‘in love’ with him.

The former Loose Women star said: ‘Oh no, I really wasn’t, everybody could see it and was going, that’s not gonna last. I was the only one who didn’t see it. But he was a great guy, and he did his best, you know.’

As Jessie asked whether her ex-husband was a ‘good manager’, Jane said: ‘He was, he was in certain things. He was brilliant, but he was very Danish and didn’t understand that it’s all a game, our business, and you have to play it.

‘I was a club artist, a cruise ship singer, which was like, we don’t allow this in our industry. And nobody thought for one minute that I would go straight to number one with that album, nobody. 

‘Not even the record company. It was a shock to everybody. And then my tour sold out massively, which was, you know, another learning curve. 

‘And I was learning the business with Henrik (her husband and manager at the time) along the way. So it was like, hang on a minute. This is not tallying up [..] but it’s a game, and you have to play it. 

‘And then I got dropped from my labels, and I thought, how hard can this be? So I did it all myself.

‘You don’t realise that, every artist thinks they need a record company, and you don’t. You just need a bit of money. 

‘So if you’ve got a backer or a good bank like I had, you know, they’ll just say, Yeah, off you go. 

‘I put my house up more times to fund, because I had no kids, it didn’t matter to me.

‘My mother would live wherever I was. So I put my house up all the time to fund the tours and the albums, and I just kept going and building the fan base. 

‘And my fans are the best in the world. And they stood with me. So it’s only been the last sort of five years that I’ve finally been able to breathe now, but I never gave up. And I think that’s the thing. 

‘I think so many people get frightened, lose a lot of money, and think this is not for me. I can’t stand this. Or they get so disillusioned with the industry, you’ve just got to play it or do it a different way.’

Jane had previously shared in her 2019 autobiography that she started to feel ‘lonely’ in her marriage, after Henrik ruled out the prospect of having children.

She wrote: ‘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.

‘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.

‘Eventually, I came to the devastating conclusion that I really did have nothing left. I told Henrik, ”I’m firing you as my manager.”’

Four years after partner Eddie’s death, Jane recently shared that ‘not a day goes by where she doesn’t think of him.’

The singer and TV presenter, who heartbreakingly lost her partner Eddie to lung cancer in 2021, shared that she misses him every day as she opened up on dealing with grief and the loss of her beloved partner. 

When asked if she misses having someone to share life with, Jane told Bella Magazine: ‘Of course I do. There’s not a day goes by that I don’t think of (Eddie), talk of him – It’s awful. 

She continued: ‘I’m not going to butter this up in any way: grief stays with you all the time, but what you have to do is sit it beside joy. 

‘You have to bring as much joy into your life as humanly possible, so that you feel more joy than the grief. I’m just about level now.’ 

Opening up about her loss and choosing to stay positive, Jane shared that before she begins her day, she practices a mantra and chooses to always go down the positive route.

Jane had known The Searchers star Eddie since they were teenagers, but they only reconnected in the early noughties, before getting engaged in 2008. 

Jane McDonald in Nashville continues tonight (April 10) at 9pm on Channel 5