Gary Speed's widow has suffered another tragic loss as her new husband has died following a battle with cancer. Louise found love again after the loss of the ex-footballer and remarried to Quinton Bird, who sadly passed away following a brain cancer diagnosis.
The pair married back in 2021, 10 years after the death of the former Wales National football team manager, Gary Speed. The mum and Quinton had been business partners for six years, and were both directors of a new build and renovation company, reports the Mirror.
The couple were wed in a ceremony at Peckforton Castle just before Christmas 2021. There were a number of high profile names in attendance including former Newcastle and England striker Alan Shearer, who was a close friend and former team-mate of Gary.
However, their love story was tragically cut short as Quinton succumbed to an aggressive form of brain tumour last year - a condition he had been battling for two years. His father Roy gave a touching tribute by saying that he was "devastated" to lose his son "at such a young age is beyond words".
The father added that Quinton was a "wonderful" father and the entire family "had been left with a wealth of beautiful and extraordinary memories". Quinton had helped Louise cope with her loneliness following Gary’s tragic death, after he had taken his own life in November 2011 at the age of 42.
She opened up about the impact his death had had on her in a brave interview back in November 2021. Louise said: "It was like being in the worst nightmare possible.
"There were no answers and no Gary walking through the door again. Nothing was ever going to be right again.
"I was trudging through life, just functioning. If I could have been anybody else apart from me, for a long time, I would have happily taken it.
"But we are 10 years on now. It's a cliché but time is a healer even if it takes years.
"I have learned that life can be good again, can be great again. I don't think you move on from something like this as the same person.
"I have become wiser. I am probably more confident than I was.
"But I tend to wear a body of armour around me the whole time, if I am honest - so that I cannot be hurt again. I don't know if that body of armour has developed over time or whether I deliberately put it on at some point.
"All I know is that it is there now and it wasn't 10 years ago. I just want to protect myself from life.
"I don't want to feel or go through anything like that ever again. I hope that makes sense."
Speed had suffered with depression throughout his adult life and wrote a letter expressing suicidal thoughts as a 17-year-old but never sent it. Louise added: "That was the first I knew of it."
"But my conclusion is that to do what Gary did you must be unwell in your mind. He couldn't talk, didn't want to talk.
"He had all the opportunities through people like the League Managers Association."
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