Sir Tom Jones has refuted claims which suggest he’s in a romantic relationship with Priscilla Presley, widow of music icon Elvis Presley. Rumours of a romance emerged when the pair were spotted arriving together at Hollywood restaurant Craig's at the start of the year. However, the Voice UK coach has shot down the speculation, insisting the nights out were purely platonic. Speaking to the Daily Star Sunday, he explained: "Priscilla is a friend of mine. I’ve known her for years. But it’s not true that we’re dating or in a relationship. We are just friends. But good friends."
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The Welsh musician, 76, and the American actress, 71, have known each other for several decades after Tom became good friends with her late husband Elvis, who died in 1977. Priscilla was married to 'the King' from 1967 until their divorce in 1973. Meanwhile, Sir Tom was left heartbroken last April when his wife of 59 years Linda died of cancer at the age of 75.
Sir Tom Jones has blasted Priscilla Presley relationship claims
Earlier this year, the Delilah hitmaker opened up to chat show host Lorraine about his wife's devastating death. "When she passed it was so sudden, in April, she found out she had lung cancer and it was too late, it was terminal, and it was very, very quick," he said. "So it really knocked the stuffing out of me because we'd been together since we were kids you see. We were kids together. And she has always been there, so it was a strange thing."
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He continued: "I didn't know whether I would be able to carry on and I just didn't know but, you know, my family, and my son and my daughter-in-law who are also my managers and Mark my son, he said, 'Look if you don't sing, you'll die, you'll just shrivel up and die, do you want to do that?' I said, 'No not really'. So we tried it, we sort of broke-in easily. I got some musicians together and we tried some songs out because I didn't know whether I could sing and then we did." Sir Tom rose to fame in the 1960s, releasing popular tunes such as It's Not Unusual, Green, Green Grass of Home and Delilah. He scored his first UK number one in 1965 for It's Not Unusual and went on to sell more than 100 million records around the world throughout his career.