Tommy Fleming said he met his wife Tina at a funeral. The couple split months ago after 20 years of marriage.
Singer Tommy Fleming previously told how he met his wife at a funeral – as it emerged last weekend that he and his wife have split after 20 years of marriage.. On Sunday, Tina, who was also Tommy’s manager, revealed that the pair separated seven months ago.. The couple first met in 2002, married in 2006 and raised daughter Rebecca together.. Tina also has two children from a previous relationship.. As one of Ireland’s most
recognisable musical voices Tommy Fleming has witnessed many highs and lows.. After starting his career playing in pubs and clubs he made it all the way to Carnegie Hall by the age of 22, with his best yet to come.. 2015 marked the 10th anniversary of his landmark release, Voice of Hope, recorded live in Knock Basilica in December 2004.. It would go on to sell over three million copies worldwide and change his life
forever.. Speaking on that landmark anniversary, Tommy from Aclare, Co Sligo, told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “My abiding memory of the release is the night we performed on The Late Late Show.. “I performed Something Inside So Strong with an orchestra and a choir.. We were coming home the next day.. There was only about six shows on the tour, and there were about 150 to 200 tickets sold for each.. “By the time we
got home from Dublin, every one of the shows had sold out.. That was a complete barometer of what was to come.” But only a few years before Voice of Hope was recorded, Tommy was fighting for his life.. A horrific car crash in November 1998 saw the singer break his neck in two places.. He was lucky to survive.. He revealed: “It could have been the end of things.. It was with great difficulty
[I carried on] in the beginning.. I remember being in the hospital on the spinal bed and the specialist came down to tell me and my sister Cathy there was a possibility I wouldn’t walk again.. “They hadn’t done the full CT scans and stuff.. And my response to him was, ‘Don’t be so f***ing stupid!’ “I didn’t think about what I was saying I guess.. He was kind of looking at me.. His qualifications
were the length of this room and I was telling him not to be so f***ing stupid!” As it turned out, he was right to doubt his doctors, but the road to recovery was a long and painful one.. He added: “I remember when they told me I had broken my neck in two places.. I had broken C1 and C2, and I had cracked C3.. “They were bringing me into theatre to put this
brace on me.. The scariest time was when they were putting it on.. “They couldn’t give me anesthetic because they had to know exactly where they were drilling.. “So they drilled into my skull, with no anesthetic, to put the screws in.. I had four placed, you can see the scars, two here [points to temples] and two into the back of my head.. “They were like little bolts.. That was the scariest time, when
they were being fitted.. That was painful.. “I remember trying to get up off the bed while I was wearing it and I just couldn’t walk.. I was like R2D2 moving like that.. I had to wear that for almost four months.. I couldn’t sleep properly.. “I was given sleeping pills.. But the problem with sleeping pills is, yes you go to sleep but you wake up the next morning with such a cloud.. “You
don’t want to be anywhere, you don’t want to do anything.. So I stopped taking them.. Then I drank probably too much to help me get to sleep.. Then I had the same problem again the next day.. So I had to stop all of that.” A couple of years later Tommy met the woman who would become his wife, and later his manager, Tina.. He said: “Two years later I met Tina, at a
funeral.. Everyone says to me, ‘What?’ “We were at a mutual friend’s funeral in Castlebar in Mayo.. Tina came in and sat beside me and we started talking in the church, just whispering.. “We ended up, as you do, going for pints after.. And we spent the day doing it.. “There was two of us on our own and two other friends just sitting at the bar the whole day.. I suppose that’s how we
struck a chord.” A bizarre case emerged in the courts in 2017 when Tommy, his wife and their company were awarded €150k damages against an Irish TV station that aired one of his DVDs.. A High Court judge found that singer Tommy Fleming suffered “a serious setback” following unauthorised broadcasts of his Voice of Hope DVD on an Irish television station and was entitled to damages.. The singer, his wife and manager Tina and their
company TF Productions were awarded a total of €150,000 damages against the broadcaster Irish TV.. They had sued Irish TV after the station broadcast a promotional DVD sent out by the singer in relation to his 2004 recording Voice of Hope under the title the Tommy Fleming Musical Extravaganza.. The broadcasts occurred in December 2014.. In his judgment, Justice Paul Gilligan said he was satisfied the Flemings had suffered damage and loss due to the
copyright infringement.. In particular, Tommy Fleming “has suffered a serious setback to his entertainment career,” had been “undermined” and “the professional standard he has operated under has been damaged” by the unauthorised broadcasts by Irish TV.. The judge said the Flemings were entitled to €100,000 by way of damages for “infringement of intellectual property rights of which they are the owners”.. In addition, their company TF Productions was entitled to €50,000 damages as a contribution
to the money it expended on minimising its losses.. The judge also awarded the three plaintiffs their legal costs against the defendants.. Irish TV, which had operated from Westport Industrial Park in Co Mayo and broadcasted a 24-hour channel on Sky, Eir and free-to-air services, did not contest the application.. The court heard that the station had, in correspondence before its liquidation, said it believed it had permission to broadcast the show.. In his evidence
to the court, Fleming said the station never had his permission to broadcast the Voice of Hope.. He said he learned about the broadcast from a friend and said he would never have used the term extravaganza in relation to his work.. That word, he said, meant “circus”.. He said he had been damaged because the Voice of Hope had been broadcast on a small channel with low ratings.. This had damaged his ability to
be featured on major broadcasters.. While Fleming accepted that he, his wife and their company may not get much out of any damages award against a firm in liquidation he said he had to proceed with his action because the case centered around what was their work.. In his judgment, Justice Gilligan said Fleming is “a talented artist who has been well received publicly” and “has had a successful career in the entertainment industry both
in Ireland and abroad”.. The judge said he was mindful of the loss suffered by Fleming, both within the state and on the singer’s global platform due to the unauthorised broadcasts.. The judge also noted that the plaintiffs had expended money on hiring extra staff, marketing and advertising to redress the drop in ticket sales caused by the defendant’s breach.. Tommy and Tina’s split comes as the singer recently endured a period of ill health
, resulting in the cancellation of several shows.. “I’m doing fine, I’m just going through a very tough time and, you know, I had medical issues and I just had to get that sorted and I’m OK,” he said.. Want to see more of the stories you love from the Irish Mirror?. Making us your preferred source on Google means you’ll get more of our exclusives…. To add Irish Mirror as a preferred source, simply
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Tommy Fleming, Tina Fleming, Voice of Hope, marriage split, car crash recovery, intellectual property lawsuit