\nNatalie Clarke<\/a><\/p>\n
Last updated at 12:22 PM on 3rd December 2011<\/p>\n
The first meeting between Sue Hymns and Jimmy Savile is recorded faithfully in her diary, dated September 23, 1968. \u2018Saw Jimmy Savile at the hospital,\u2019 the entry reads. \u2018Met him again at 5.15pm and he gave me a lift to the bus stop in his taxi.\u2019 Back then, Sue was a stunningly pretty 18-year-old on her way to a doctor\u2019s appointment at Leeds General Infirmary, while Savile \u2014 thanks to his role as presenter of Top Of The Tops \u2014 was Britain\u2019s most famous DJ.<\/span><\/p>\n Final embrace: Sir Jimmy Savile and Sue Hymns’ last date at their favourite pizza restaurant, two months before his death at the age of 84<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But on the day in question, Savile was doing a shift as a volunteer porter at the city\u2019s hospital \u2014 part of the charitable works that were already as much a feature of his life as the platinum hair, the eccentric outfits and cigars. The first words he ever spoke to her were: \u2018Now then, now then.\u2019 Yes, really. As chat-up lines go, it may not have been the most seductive. But that chance meeting led to a relationship that was to last, on and off, right up until Savile\u2019s death in October aged 84. A relationship which Sue describes as being as close as any marriage, yet which remained hidden from all but the star\u2019s dearest friends.<\/span><\/p>\n Widely regarded as perennially single, Savile would bat away questions about his private life. While he would often speak movingly of his relationship with his late mother, Agnes \u2014 whom he called \u2018the Duchess\u2019 \u2014 there was never any mention of a girlfriend, leading to much cruel speculation about his sexuality. It is to lay such gossip to rest that Sue has taken the decision \u2014 after being tracked down by the Daily Mail \u2014 to break her 43-year silence and tell, for first time, the moving story of her romance with \u2018Jim\u2019, as she called him. After much soul-searching, she has concluded that it would serve Savile\u2019s memory better to \u2018set the record straight\u2019 rather than allow unkind rumour to tarnish his memory. Sue and Jimmy in 1969 at the Yorkshire Evening Post. The first words he ever spoke to her were: ‘Now then, now then.’ Yes, really<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Indeed, she is still astonished they managed to keep the relationship secret for so long, especially in the later years. For while she and Savile drifted apart in the Seventies, during which Sue embarked on an ill-fated marriage and had a daughter, their relationship intensified in 1991 and they remained a couple \u2014 albeit an unconventional one \u2014 to the end. \u2018The funny thing is that Jim and I went out and about in Leeds all the time and must have been photographed hundreds of times by fans,\u2019 Sue says. \u2018Everyone had this idea that Jim was single, and they must have thought I was his secretary or something. Sometimes people would ask who I was and Jim would say: \u201cOh, this is Sue, she\u2019s my cleaner.\u201d \u2018Our relationship was private for so long \u2014 Jim didn\u2019t feel the need to advertise it to the wider world \u2014 but so much rubbish has been said about him that I think people should know the truth. ‘Our relationship was unconventional, but it lasted longer than many marriages\u2019. When we meet at Sue\u2019s immaculate flat in South-West London, the evidence of their mutual affection is plain to see. Photographs of her and Jim together over the years adorn the walls: a faded shot of them in a Leeds caf\u00e9, not long after they met; another dressed up together for a Lord Mayor\u2019s banquet. The final one, at their favourite restaurant, The Flying Pizza in Leeds, was taken just two months before he died. Now an elegant 61-year-old, Sue works as a PA at a health company. Still strikingly attractive, it is easy to see why Savile was attracted to her all those years ago. Recalling that first encounter, she says: \u2018I saw him and thought: \u201cOh my God, it\u2019s Jimmy Savile, please don\u2019t talk to me.\u201d I was only 18 then, and he was so famous. \u2018He did his \u201cnow then, now then\u201d routine \u2014 Jim never said hello \u2014 and I tried to think of something to say. I mentioned a friend called Ray whom I knew Jim had taught to DJ, and Jim replied: \u201cLet\u2019s not talk about Ray; let\u2019s talk about you.\u201d\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n ‘Jim had decided early on that because of his showbiz lifestyle, marriage and children would never work,’ said Sue (pictured above in 1969)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A few weeks later, they met up at the InTime nightclub in Leeds, and Savile dropped Sue home. More dates followed and, little by little, despite the 23-year age gap, they grew closer. \u2018Our first dates were in Leeds, dinner at The Queens hotel,\u2019 recalls Sue. \u2018Because of who he was, I felt rather nervous in the beginning. \u2018In public, he was gregarious, but the real Jim was a serious man, quite intense, quite a philosopher. \u2018In 43 years of knowing him, I never once heard him talk about music. But he had tremendous charisma and I found him very intriguing. It was a very carefree, exciting time.\u2019 The romance developed into a full, physical relationship and over the next couple of years, Sue and Jim saw each other regularly,\u00a0 meeting up at a caf\u00e9 opposite Leeds General Infirmary, or in London when Savile had filming commitments. \u2018When he did Top Of The Pops, I would meet Jim in London for the show and then we would spend the night at a hotel \u2014 nothing too swanky. Jim was always careful with money.\u2019 If he was never open about their relationship, he didn\u2019t hide Sue away, either. Once, Savile was invited to open new offices for the Yorkshire Evening Post and persuaded\u00a0 Sue to go with him and pose\u00a0 alongside him wearing a mini skirt and boots.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018I think he even had his hand up my skirt,\u2019 she says, laughing at the memory. That first phase of their relationship came to an end in 1970, when Sue moved to Munich, where her sister was living with her husband. Three years later, Sue moved to London and met her husband, an advertising executive, whom she married in 1975. They had a daughter, Lindsay, now 35, but divorced in 1983. \u2018We weren\u2019t compatible and grew apart,\u2019 Sue says. Single again, she moved back to Leeds and had a four-year relationship with a mill owner. She often thought of Savile, but it was not until 1991 that she bumped into him in a restaurant \u2014 and they soon resumed their romance. ‘He (Jimmy) wouldn’t go to the cinema or theatre, and he always went on cruises alone or with a couple of the men from the Leeds crowd,’ said Sue<\/p>\n<\/div>\n They would remain \u2018an item\u2019 until Savile\u2019s death five weeks ago. Though they never lived together, they spent many happy times together and kept in close contact even when Jim\u2019s work commitments took him away from Leeds. \u2018We saw each other three times a week when he was in town, and would speak on the phone when he was away. I worked full-time as a PA, so we didn\u2019t meet during the day, but we\u2019d go out in the evenings. \u2018I would go to his flat at about 7pm so we could have a proper chat before we went out and he became \u201cJimmy Savile the showman\u201d. When we were alone, he was affectionate and tactile, but not so much when we were out. It was like being with two different people. \u2018But in a way it was like a marriage. We went so far back that Jim could be himself with me.\u2019 If others inquired about their relationship, Jim would bat away the question with a joke. Once, at a charity function, they met Coronation Street actress Liz Dawn, who politely asked Savile who his companion was. \u2018He said: \u201cOh, this is Sue. I found her in the street one day, homeless.\u201d\u2019 \u2018She looked at me and said:\u00a0 \u201cOh love, oh you poor darling.\u201d\u2019 While some women may have resented being kept in the shadows, Sue says it never bothered her. Even so, did she not harbour hopes that they would move in together \u2014 marry, even? \u2018Jim had decided early on that because of his showbiz lifestyle, marriage and children would never work,\u2019 she explains. \u2018But our relationship this time round moved on to a more mature level.\u2019 Besides, she says, the arrangement suited her.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018I had my daughter and didn\u2019t want another man moving in, although Jim got on very well with Lindsay and came to her 18th birthday party.\u2019 And so their relationship continued \u2014 together but apart \u2014 with Sue making regular visits to Savile\u2019s penthouse flat in Leeds. \u2018The lift went right up to the penthouse,\u2019 she says. \u2018I\u2019d get out of the lift and he\u2019d be standing there in his dressing gown and he\u2019d say: \u201cI have purposely kept my dressing gown on to see what you are wearing so we can colour co-ordinate\u201d. ‘He was frugal and would use tea bags three times,’ said Sue<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018Jim often had friends over, people from Leeds he\u2019d known all his life, and we would sit round chatting, having a drink, though Jim didn\u2019t drink until 1997, when he had a quadruple heart bypass operation and was advised by his doctor to drink one glass of wine a day. \u2018He lived on toast most of the time. ‘He was frugal and would use tea bags three times. When we went to restaurants we always got a doggy bag for leftovers.\u2019 He was certainly not one for romantic gestures, either.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018He never bought me anything,\u2019 says Sue, \u2018but he always paid for dinner and used to top up my car with petrol. I said to him once: \u201cYou don\u2019t like spending money, do you?\u201d And he said: \u201cNo, I like saving it.\u201d \u2018I didn\u2019t buy him presents, either, though I did loan him my exercise bike, which he kept.\u2019 Contrary to the perception of Savile being a recluse, Sue says he had hundreds of friends \u2014 it\u2019s just he grouped them into \u2018boxes\u2019. One \u2018box\u2019 comprised his friends in Glencoe, Scotland, where he had a cottage. Another was made up of friends in Scarborough, his favourite seaside town. He also had a small circle in London, where he owned a flat near Regent\u2019s Park. Then there was the friends through his TV and charity work. Sue was part of the Leeds set; and when he spent time with his other \u2018boxes\u2019, she didn\u2019t ask questions about who he was with.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018There may have been other women \u2014 I didn\u2019t ask,\u2019 she shrugs. If it sounds a curious arrangement, Sue says that while she found the relationship with Savile physically fulfilling, she had long given up trying to discuss \u2018feelings\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018Jim did have emotions, but he couldn\u2019t show them. If I said to him: \u201cI\u2019ve missed you,\u201d he\u2019d reply: \u201cCome on, it\u2019s me you\u2019re talking to.\u201d\u2019 Even so, she says that as the years wore on, she did miss aspects of more conventional relationships.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018He wouldn\u2019t go to the cinema or theatre, and he always went on cruises alone or with a couple of the men from the Leeds crowd. \u2018Jim had this idea that being a DJ and television presenter meant he had to give the impression of being single. He was doing it right to the end, flirting with women, kissing their hands. I\u2019d be thinking: \u201cCome on Jim, you\u2019re 80!\u201d But as he got older there\u2019d be times when he would show his feelings. I think he needed more.\u2019 He was upset when Sue moved to London, seven years ago, to be nearer her daughter and two grandchildren, making it harder for her and Savile to be together. \u2018Jim was grumpy about it. I think if he had asked me not to go, I wouldn\u2019t have, but he couldn\u2019t say it. But he did say to a friend once: \u201cYou know she left me? I would never have left her.\u201d That upset me.\u00a0 \u2018But we got back into a routine of me going up to Leeds once or twice a month, and after that he became more affectionate. \u2019 Their last date together was in late August, when they went for dinner at their favourite pizza restaurant in Leeds. By then, Savile was in poor health.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018When I walked into the flat he gave a little sigh and said: \u201cOh, you\u2019re back at last.\u201d He was very slow, he had little energy.\u2019 The following month, Savile fell ill with pneumonia and spent ten days in hospital. Sue spoke to the ward sister every day but was reassured that Jim was getting better, so she didn\u2019t rush up.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018When he came out of hospital, we agreed I would go up to see him when he was feeling well again \u2014 he really hated anyone seeing him when he was poorly.\u2019 Sadly, on Saturday, October 29, two days before his 85th birthday, Savile passed away. Sue learned of his death by text. \u2018I was out shopping with a friend and had just said: \u201cI must call Jim when I get home\u201d, when I received a text message from a friend saying he\u2019d been found dead at the flat. \u2018I couldn\u2019t believe it. I bought the papers the next morning and he was on the front pages, and I just thought: \u201cOh no, that\u2019s my Jim\u201d, and I cried.\u2019 Sue travelled to Leeds on the Monday, Savile\u2019s birthday, where she was one of the few close friends allowed to see Savile\u2019s partially open coffin when his body was lying \u2018in state\u2019 at The Queens hotel. \u2018I wasn\u2019t sure whether to go, but I\u2019m glad I did, that I saw him one last time,\u2019 she says.
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<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Final](\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/e5dbarticle-2069358-0EF9BC3600000578-747_468x375.jpg\")
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<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Sue](\"http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2011\/12\/02\/article-2069358-0EF9BBE900000578-993_468x580.jpg\")
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<\/span><\/p>\n![\"'Jim](\"http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2011\/12\/02\/article-2069358-0EF9BB6C00000578-442_468x400.jpg\")
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<\/span><\/p>\n![\"'He](\"http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2011\/12\/02\/article-2069358-0B565AAF00000578-678_468x330.jpg\")
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<\/span><\/p>\n![\"'He](\"http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2011\/12\/02\/article-2069358-002CBA1900000258-235_233x350.jpg\")
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