'I have been totally and utterly overwhelmed': Delia Smith opens up on losing her husband and learning to be 'half a whole'
Delia’s husband of 55 years, Michael Wynne Jones, died in September of this year
Delia Smith is full of “total” and “absolute gratitude” for her 55 year marriage to the journalist and publisher Michael Wynne Jones, but the legendary chef has conceded that she’s now learning to live as one half of a whole.
Delia’s husband passed away in September, and, appearing on BBC’s Woman’s Hour as part of her latest book tour, she shared how she has been left “totally and utterly overwhelmed” by the level of affection and sympathy she has received from people following his death.
Despite navigating a new life without her right-hand man of over half a decade, the response has been a reminder to the TV personality and author that “there's a lot of badness in the world, but goodness is stronger”.
Speaking on Woman’s Hour, Delia said of her 55-year-marriage, “Well, it was brilliant, absolutely brilliant. And all I can feel now is total gratitude, absolute gratitude. In all this avalanche of comments, I'm finding out, I knew he was good, I'm now finding out he was a saint.
"I've had journalists say he helped them to make their careers. I've had young cricketers who he helped because he was the local cricket captain. I have had messages from everywhere about how absolutely wonderful he was.”
She added, “I have just been totally and utterly overwhelmed. I mean, before I wrote the book, I knew there is a connection between human beings and we don't always realise how deep it is. But I have just experienced an avalanche of love from all parts of the country and from abroad.
"And I'm just overwhelmed by actually how good people are. And what we've got to get into our heads is that there's a lot of badness in the world. But goodness is stronger, if we could only understand that.”
The book Delia referred to is her latest which is not, surprisingly, a cook book. Instead, perhaps inspired by her recent loss and learning to rediscover the power of goodness, the book is her take on the power of community and unity.
Something which the former TV cook is no doubt leaning on more than ever as she learns to enter a new phase of her life feeling like one half of a whole, as she said on a recent podcast.
Delia told the Amol Rajan Connections podcast, “I've got to learn how to be half a whole. That's going to be hard after 55 years. We did so many things. We had a lovely life together.”
When asked if she could relive a moment in her life, she replied, “Any moment with my husband.”
