Thom Yorke found the death of his former partner Rachel Owen "very hard".
The Oxford University lecturer passed away from cancer at the age of 48 in 2016, and the Radiohead frontman – who has son Noah, 18, and daughter Agnes, 15, with Rachel – has said he found her death difficult to deal with, especially as it meant raising their two teenage children without their mother.
Thom – who dated Rachel for 23 years before splitting in 2015 – said: "I can’t hope to be their mum but we’re all right. I’m just really proud of them both. It stuns me most days. I can’t believe they’re anything to do with me. They’re just such great people.
"When the kids’ mum died, it was a very difficult period and we went through a lot. It was very hard. She suffered a great deal and my ambition is to make sure that we have come out of it all right, and I hope that’s what’s happening."
The ‘Creep’ hitmaker is now in a relationship again, and think he’s "lucky" someone else has come along to bring "a light" back into his life.
Speaking during an appearance on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Desert Island Discs’, Thom added: "I’m lucky now because I have a new partner who has come and brought a light into all of it, which has taken a great deal of strength. And really if all that’s okay If I’m able to make some music that expresses all that and is still important to people, that’s more than I can ask for."
Rachel taught Italian at Oxford University, and at the time of her passing, it was revealed in a statement that she’d "asked to continue" her teaching at Pembroke College Oxford.
The statement, released by the school, read: "It is with great sadness that the College marks the death of Dr. Rachel Owen.
"Dr. Owen was an internationally renowned artist – mixing photography and printmaking – and at the same time a scholar in medieval Italian literature.
"Dr. Owen’s parallel passion for art and literature was already established in her university years at Exeter, where she studied Italian and Fine Art.
‘She then moved to Royal Holloway, London, where she completed a PhD on the illustrations of the early manuscripts of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Each year, her Pembroke students enjoyed the pleasure and the privilege of a guided tour through the manuscripts of the Divine Comedy held at the Bodleian Library.
"Despite her declining health from cancer in the last year, she asked to continue to teach, which she did right until the end of last Michaelmas term. She was 48 years old and leaves behind a son, Noah, and a daughter, Agnes, aged 15 and 12.
"One of her latest artistic productions was a series of prints inspired by the Cantos of Dante’s first book of the Divine Comedy. The prints will be exhibited at Pembroke’s JCR Art Gallery during Trinity term."
Thom Yorke: My ex-partner’s death was ‘very hard’
