With more than 100 books published and a dedicated fanbase of pretty much all UK millennials, Jacqueline Wilson is an enduring icon. At the age of 80, the Dame is also a great example of how life can take all kinds of twists and turns, and feature a number of missteps, but still turn out rather brilliantly.
Case in point: did you know Jacqueline was previously married, and subsequently divorced? The author tied the knot back in 1965, at the young age of just 19 – something she now describes as a 'silly mistake'.
Following the split in her 50s, Jacqueline went on to meet the 'love of her life': a woman named Trish.
In an interview with The Times, Jacqueline shared about her past marriage: 'We made the rather silly mistake of getting married when I was 19. I think the trouble was we were such different people with different expectations. We had our happy moments, but we also had our difficulties. I think I was determined to make the marriage work because my parents’ marriage had been such a disaster.'
While the marriage didn't work out, it did have a happy outcome. Two years after the wedding, the couple welcomed a daughter, Emma. Jacqueline describes her daughter as 'absolutely wonderful'.
In the same interview, Jacqueline opened up about her daughter not having children, saying she's not sad to have never become a grandparent. 'When she was growing up, I was so lucky to have a job you do at home,' the author said. 'I could play with Emma as much as we both liked and I feel I’ve got that out of my system.'
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Jacqueline has previously spoken about the 'mistake' of getting married so young – and remaining in the marriage for perhaps longer than she should have. She previously told Stylist: 'I was married to a guy who was, I think, the complete opposite of me. He was a policeman, and so I was stuck very young being a policeman’s wife. [If I could go back to 17-year-old me,] I would say: “Don’t get married.” You don’t need to get married. I always felt I had a reasonably okay marriage, but I had a secret feeling that he wasn’t the person that I’d always dreamed of.'
But that 'mistake' hasn't held the author back. Following the separation and divorce in her 40s, Jacqueline went on to remain single for a few years before meeting the woman who is now her partner of more than two decades, Trish. She shared: 'Forty is an odd age. It’s just a number, and yet it’s also a reckoning age. You start to think, “Well, is this what I want for the rest of my life? Or do I want to change?” At 40, I was lucky. My books were selling well, and my daughter had grown up and was doing well herself, and my marriage was sort of jogging along, shall we say. [Imagine] if I had known then that 10 years later, I would no longer be married, and that quite shortly after, I would meet the woman who was the love of my life.'
See? Proof that the 'wrong' marriage doesn't have to ruin your life, and that there's plenty of potential after 50. And that's before you get on to Jacqueline's incredible writing career, which is still going strong now.
