Inside James Morrison’s sweet love story with late wife Gill and unusual way they met as she’s found dead aged 45

SINGER James Morrison has been left devastated by the sudden death of his wife Gill Catchpole who he met well before his rise to fame.

James, 39, met Gill, 45, when he was a teenager and she moved in as a lodger into his mother's Gloucestershire home.

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The cafe owner, who was found dead on Friday, lived there alongside her boyfriend John, and a young James, while he pursued his music career.

Love blossomed after Gill separated from John and James provided comfort.

The couple connected through music, because Gill's dad was also a musician, and James would later share that she was not just his first love, but also the only love of his life.

In an interview James told The Sun how how he did his best to impress Gill by learning songs from Stevie Wonder's Key Of Life album.

The Brit Award winner shared: "When she moved in, I started singing all the songs off that album to her.

"I was playing all of that stuff on the acoustic guitar. So, it reminds me of when I met her and me just serenading the corridor hoping she’d pop out."

He added on Irish television in 2022: "I serenaded her in the corridor hoping she'd pop out. I was always singing!

"She moved in as a lodger with her boyfriend. To my mum's house. He was massive. He was 6ft and I was 17 (years old).

"So I was 17 and he was like 32 or something. And he was 6ft 2inch. I'm 5ft 10!"

The couple exchanged vows in 2012 and welcomed two daughters, 15-year-old Elsie and 5-year-old Ada-Rose.

Gill, owner of successful café Cotswold Sandwich Box in Whitminster, provided stability James as he continued to write music and his career took off.

Reflecting on his career, the star said in a 2022 television interview: "You have to be very strong to be in this business, you have to be grounded in yourself as a person and do it beause you love it. Because there's times when no one cares if you're in the charts or the album you're doing.

"Do what you want to do that is going to help you enjoy life. It takes a lot of hard work, I sacrificed a lot of time in my twenties, my mates were going out drinking and I was in the studio. But it worked out, it doesn't always work out that way. I'm lucky."

James dedicated his 2019 album You're Stronger Than You Know to Gill, following their younger daughter being born 13 weeks premature.

Even dubbing Gill his "hero," James portrayed their love story as a "little fairy tale."

The album also referred to the heartache they had been through in recent years.

James lost his dad through alcoholism in 2015, and had then gone through tragedy trying for a second baby.

He said in 2019: "It was tough,.

"After my dad died, I went on tour and tried to get over it but it didn’t help.

"It took me a while to really grieve. But it wasn’t just losing my dad — we also lost two babies which was a lot to take on in fast succession. Oh, and then I got dropped (by my label."

However there was more trauma ahead when Gill became pregnant with their second daughter Ada-Rose and started having birth contractions at just 24 weeks — 16 weeks early.

She was in hospital for three months.

He said: "When Gill’s waters broke and she was born so early and tiny, we didn’t know what was going to happen. That is probably the lowest I’ve ever been. That’s why now, looking back.

"I called the album You’re Stronger Than You Know, as Gill was amazing."

The mother of two was discovered dead at her home and police responded to the scene, with her café remaining shuttered over the weekend.

Local residents have expressed their shock, describing James and Gill as a "lovely couple" with a "beautiful family."

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