Nadine Lamont-Brown, the wife of late broadcaster and Express columnist James Whale, has spoken movingly about life without him a year after his death from kidney cancer at the age of 74.
She still talks to him every day, particularly in the kitchen where a picture of him hangs. “I think about James so much he’s still in my life, he’s still in my heart,” she told the Express. “There is a picture of him in the kitchen that every morning I speak to when I’m making my coffee – I speak to him even without it but that’s where I particularly talk to him.”
Quiet reflection on the anniversary
Nadine marked the anniversary of his death on August 4 in quiet reflection at home, seeing her sister briefly in the afternoon. “I didn’t want to do anything that felt celebratory as that didn’t feel right to me,” she said. “I visited James’ grave to bring flowers and make sure it was nice and tidy. I'm looking forward to getting him a headstone in the next few weeks, so it's properly marked.”
She is still deciding what the headstone should say. “I want to keep it simple. It might be, ‘James Whale, MBE, legend’, or something along those lines. A close friend of James suggested ‘The Godfather of Broadcasting’.”
Keeping his memory alive
Since the day James died, Nadine has worn his favourite silver skull bracelet. “I have worn it permanently even though skulls are normally not my thing,” she said. “One of his flat caps hangs on my coat rack and I have his walking stick with the skull head. There are pictures of him dotted around. He bought me so many lovely presents that every time I get dressed, I think, ‘James brought me this’. He was such a kind and generous person.”
James’s death prompted an outpouring of affection from readers and listeners, especially those who had followed his journey in the pages of the Express for the previous four years. “The messages were beautiful and comforting for me, his sons and grandchildren – we read them all,” Nadine said.
A year on
“I can’t believe it’s a year already,” Nadine admitted. “It seems like yesterday. While the gut wrenching, stabbing pain fades it becomes a permanent, dull ache that's always with you.”
The couple, who met in their Kent village pub and married in October 2021, filled their brief but happy marriage with as many wonderful memories as they could. They knew they were on borrowed time together after James learned in 2020 that his kidney cancer had returned, spreading to his spine, brain and lungs two decades after he battled the disease. Both had also lost partners to cancer before – Melinda, James’s first wife with whom he had two sons, and Nadine's husband, Simon.
When asked what she misses most about her husband, Nadine replied: “Probably being told how much he loves me and how beautiful I am every day. People can get used to things like that.”
Final days
James worked right up until the near-end of his life, only relenting once his strength had gone and his unmistakable boom had faded to a near-whisper. He documented his cancer journey in this paper, on his radio show and in the moving, tear-jerking and frequently funny podcast, Tales of the Whales, he made with Nadine.
Despite his unwavering stoicism, Nadine admitted the last six weeks were tough. “He was the most fearless person I ever knew in so many ways,” she said. “But the way he dealt with the pain he must have been in – he was incredibly brave.”
Ever the entertainer, James interjected humour into his situation. “They put him on fentanyl patches and he would joke that he had a drug dealer,” smiled Nadine.
She said his final days in a hospice brought calmness and relief as medics made him as comfortable as possible. Friends and family popped by to pay their respects, and his beloved dogs Radley and Mulberry snuggled up with him on his bed. Three days before James died, hospice staff told Nadine he might pass away that night. “But he lasted until Monday morning,” she recalled. “He kept saying to me, ‘I don't want to leave you, I will miss you too much’.”
Her voice cracked with emotion. “It was a peaceful, lovely ending.”
Funeral and legacy
James’s funeral at a picturesque church in Kent was attended by 500 people. Mourners included Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who James had interviewed in his back garden in his final broadcast a few weeks earlier, plus other luminaries from the showbiz world.
The swell of well-wishers delighted Nadine: “I genuinely felt everyone there was there because they really liked James, as a person.”
Bros’s Matt Goss, a good friend of James, sang a beautiful rendition of Nat King Cole’s Unforgettable during the service. And she is forever grateful to the singer who called a few days after James died to ask her what she would be saying at his funeral. “I said, ‘Oh, God, no, I'm not going to speak, I absolutely couldn't, I'll be too upset’. He said, ‘Just have a think about that. I really think that James would like you to.’ He inspired me to think, ‘I'm gonna give it a go’... and I’m glad I did because I would have felt sad if I hadn't afterwards.”
Life after loss
While the grief lingers, Nadine has adapted well to living on her own. A tax accountant who works full time, she enjoys gardening and cares for Radley and Mulberry, who she and James adopted from a rescue centre when they were seven. Radley is a handful, she says, which is exactly why James picked the bichon-cross.
“James went up to his cage, and Radley was literally somersaulting off the walls, and I was thinking, ‘Oh no, not that one, he’s obviously going to be trouble’,” giggled Nadine. “But James said, ‘Oh, I love him, I want this one.’ We took them out for a little walk and James and Radley bonded instantly and became inseparable.”
Radley has struggled with the loss of his master. “Some people have said I should take him back to the rescue centre, but I'm not going to do that,” said Nadine. “I am going to persevere. He’s absolutely lovely company. It’s only when we see another dog or if we have visitors that it can be a bit of carnage at the start.”
Memories of their time together
Much like James it transpires, according to beautiful, blue-eyed Nadine who reveals the only reason James got a second date with her is because of his clumsiness. “Our first date was in a trendy bar in London,” she recalled. “James sat on a pouffe and was trying to look cool. He leaned back and kept going in slow motion... his legs went up and over his head and he ended up in a pile on the floor. He tried to style it out but there were people gathering round to help him. I thought, ‘Oh yeah, you've got a second date’.”
Her new beau made a habit of tripping up in public spaces, such as the time she returned from buying train tickets at Sevenoaks Station to find a crowd gathered around him on the floor of the carpark. “I later found out he bought his shoes a size too big,” Nadine said. “He said he'd always been told to buy them bigger in case you grow into them. But you probably shouldn't still be doing that when you're 70!”
Proudest moments
One of the proudest moments of James’s life was receiving his MBE from Princess Anne at Windsor Castle in May 2024. Pimlico Plumbers boss Charlie Mullins lent the couple his Bentley for the journey and they ended their fabulous day with a dinner among close friends at the luxurious Langham’s in London. “Getting the MBE was wonderful because James had never got an O-level,” Nadine explained. “His brother says he got religious education O-level, but James vehemently denied that!”
The broadcaster had severe dyslexia and failed his 11-plus at school. So one thing is certain: “MBE” will be engraved on James’s headstone.
Giving back
A year on, Nadine is donating the mobility scooter that became a godsend to James in his final months to the hospice that cared for him. An auction of James’s clothes also raised £500 for the same charity.
Admittedly, she hasn’t sorted through everything yet. “One of the most difficult things is packing up someone's clothes, especially someone like James, whose character was so wrapped up in what he wore,” she said.
There have been other difficult steps too. Recently she visited Tenterden, a small town near Ashford in Kent. James and Nadine got married in its town hall and visited the shops and restaurants regularly on weekends. “It’s why I got nice presents as James loved buying me things and was such a good shopper,” said Nadine. “He would pick things that I would never pick myself, that were absolutely perfect. Shopping was one of his many talents.”
Nadine spent most of last year avoiding a return but returned recently for an optician’s appointment. “I cried all the way there and back,” she admitted.
On a brighter note, she’s still in touch with James’s grandson and granddaughter and other relatives.
Remembering James
As talk turns to James’s legacy, Nadine hopes he will be remembered as the ‘Godfather of broadcasting’. “I remember times when I would say, ‘You can’t say that! The police will come and arrest you’,” she laughed. “He’d go, ‘Yeah, that would be brilliant. Let's hope they do!’ Nothing phased him. He was a fearless broadcaster who believed in what he did, who loved his audience and interacted with them as much as he could. And overall, he was a totally wonderful human being I am so proud and so grateful to have known and who I love with all my heart and always will.”
