Shane MacGowan, the frontman of the Irish punk-folk band the Pogues, died of pneumonia, his wife has revealed.
The “Fairytale of New York” songwriter died at 3 a.m. Thursday with his wife and family by his side. He was 65.
The musician’s wife, Victoria Mary Clarke, told the New York Times that her husband had also battled a devastating brain swelling condition.
MacGowan, who would have turned 66 on Christmas Day, was released from hospital just last week.
Clarke confirmed her husband’s death Thursday, saying the beloved singer “will always be the light that I hold before me and the measure of my dreams and the love of my life.”
“I don’t know how to say this so I am just going to say it,” she wrote on Instagram.
“There’s no way to describe the loss that I am feeling and the longing for just one more of his smiles that lit up my world,” she said of the “love of my life and the most beautiful soul and beautiful angel.”
He received treatment in Dec. 2022 for viral encephalitis — an enlargement of the brain — and spent more time in the intensive care unit over the summer.
MacGowan, who had been in a wheelchair since 2015, was back in the hospital last month for an unknown condition.
Clarke shared a photo of MacGowan in the hospital as she opened up about her “terrifying fear of loss.”
“Love is the most beautiful and powerful thing that we can experience as humans but love can also feel painful especially if you are afraid of losing a person or anything else that you love,” she wrote, in part.
“Sometimes when you love very deeply you will find yourself facing terrifying fears of loss that can feel so big and devastating that you don’t know how you can survive them and you can’t imagine life without this person that you love.”
MacGowan was discharged from the hospital and the couple celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary at home together.
In addition to Clarke, MacGowan is survived by his sister, Siobhan; and his father, Maurice.
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