Singer James Morrison shared a poignant message on Instagram hours before his partner Gill Catchpole was reportedly found dead at their family home in Gloucestershire.
In his post, the 39-year-old uploaded an upbeat image of himself recording music in his studio with a guitar. He captioned the snapshot: "New year, new adventure…" hinting that new music may be in the pipeline.
James's January nonetheless started in the worst way possible following the subsequent death of his longtime partner. It's reported that she died aged 45 on Friday at Whitminster.
© Alan Davidson/ShutterstockThe couple first crossed paths when Gill moved into James's mother's house as a lodger with her then-boyfriend, John.
Speaking on the White Wine Question Time podcast, he revealed: "It wasn't the easiest start, but I just still see it as a really romantic thing. I'm not very romantic. I'm not like, 'I love romance!' But I do find certain things romantic and the fact that we met each other the way we did. It's like a little fairy tale or something!"
© David Fisher/ShutterstockThe couple started dating three months after Gill officially split from her boyfriend and he moved out. And according to the Brit Award-winning singer, it was love at first sight.
He explained: "We just had a connection straight away really. But I had to wait two years to find out if what I thought I felt was real. Because I wasn't going out with her for the first year or so she lived there.
© Getty Images"She was with her boyfriend, so I was getting to know her. And I didn't want to tell her that I fell in love with her the first moment I set eyes on her because I didn't know, I never fell in love before. So I didn't really know if it was that. So it was like a massive moment for me to even tell her that I liked her."
© GettyJames and Gill share two children together: daughters Elsie and Ada. Whilst he tends to keep much of his private life under wraps, he has occasionally shared glimpses inside his parenting journey. Opening up to The Mirror, James spoke about the immediate moments after Ada's birth. "When we got back to the ward I let all my emotion out. Gill was my hero," he revealed.
"I'm still so in awe of how she got through it. She's my rock. I've known her since I was playing open mic bars and was a van cleaner. I could never replace her."
During an appearance on Lorraine in 2019, meanwhile, James said: "[My daughter] was born just 1lb 11oz. She was really really small, but now she's a good strong baby. She makes up for it in volume.
"It's good we've got to this point, as the first year was difficult. Everything that was hard is worth it now. [Gill] was feeling down after the baby, so I had so much admiration for her. I just wanted to write a song that sounded like sunshine on the radio. I wanted to lift her spirits, and she said I did that."
