The 60-year-old former magician’s assistant were together for 10 years before they tied the knot when Debbie McGee was 30-years-old and Paul Daniels was 50. Opening up about their relationship, the Strictly Come Dancing finalist told the Daily Mail her dad had been quietly against their union, but hadn’t opposed it outright. “He said, ‘Be careful. He is a famous man, and women will be interested in him,’” she recalled.
“‘Get involved if you want to, but remember you may not be The One.’”
Debbie admitted she had been worried at first, saying: “In your 20s, you don’t have that confidence.”
But, later in their relationship, she felt secure.
“I knew he adored me,” she said.
Paul died two-and-a-half years ago just weeks after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.
Debbie credited last year’s stint on Strictly with giving her her “sparkle” back as she struggled to deal with the grief of losing her husband.
Asked how she thought Paul would have fared if she had passed away before him, she told the publication: “I don’t think he would have coped.
“He always used to say I was his reason for living. That’s not me being big-headed, it’s the way it was.”
Debbie and Paul never had children, but the magician was father to three sons with his first wife Jacqueline Skipworth.
She remains close to the elder two, but found strain put on her relationship with Paul’s youngest son, Paul Junior, after the showbiz legend died and left him out of the will.
Paul Junior lashed out at Debbie in an interview, calling her a “false witch”, but she said things are now “more settled” between them.
Debbie shot to fame as Paul’s magic assistant, performing the glamorous role for 15 years from 1979 until 1994.
It was the magician who gave her the now famous nickname, The Lovely Debbie McGee.
He once told The Guardian about how they met, saying: “I remember her sitting on a wall outside the rehearsal room, looking like the little mannequin drawing between the paragraphs of Playboy magazine.
“We got chatting. She had personality and life — and presence.”
He said they had “kept breaking up” in the early years of their relationship, adding: “By the time she was 28 I realised she was obviously in for the long run. When she was 30 I asked her to marry me.”