The widow of football legend Gary Speed has been hit by fresh heartbreak, as her second husband has dies.
Louise Speed had married property developer Quinton Bird in 2021, with the pair having a lavish ceremony in Cheshire. Footballers such as Alan Shearer attended the wedding.
However, in a tragic turn of events, Quinton, 53, had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer.
Louise Speed loses her second husband
The property developer and father of three had been battling cancer for two years, and passed from the illness just six months after he married Louise.
Quinton’s father, Roy, said that the family were “devastated” to lose their son “at such a young age”.
The loss is all the more painful for Louise, after she found her childhood sweetheart Gary dead in 2011.
Gary hanged himself 12 years ago: as a footballing icon responsible for turning around the Welsh team, the news of his loss caused shockwaves in the sports community.
Louise, who shared two children with Gary, spoke publicly about losing her husband in 2018.
Gary Speed death in 2011
“There’s never a day goes by that the memory of it doesn’t take my breath away. That scene was like a horror film,” she told The Mirror.
“I wish there was an operation which could take your memory out and obliterate it from my mind.”
Louise continued that she has found it “hard” to forgive her husband for taking his own life.
I tend to wear a body of armour around me the whole time, if I am honest — so that I cannot be hurt again.
“We were the ones who had to pick up the pieces and what he’d done was grotesque,” she said. “Everyone asks why he did it but I have no answers. That’s why I’ll never have any closure.”
She continued to the Daily Mail: “I have witnessed the hurt he has caused to his family and friends, particularly his boys and his mum and dad and myself.
“The void he has left within us all. So I don’t know. I just don’t know if I have forgiven him yet or not. But of course I want to.
“The anger has only just subsided and that is part of it. I was angry with him for a long time but that also kept me strong, if you know what I mean? It’s when I released that anger that I felt a little bit vulnerable.”
How Louise Speed recovered from Gary’s death
However, Louise added that time, as well as her new relationship, had helped her heal.
“I have learned that life can be good again, can be great again,” she said at the time.
“I don’t think you move on from something like this as the same person.
“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 know as we go through life different things hit us and I actually think that I deal with things OK now. Nothing fazes me or scares me anymore.
“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.”
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