Victoria Mary Clarke

Victoria Mary Clarke (born 11 January 1966) is an Irish journalist and writer who has written for newspapers and magazines in Britain and Ireland; she has also appeared on Irish reality television shows. She is known for her long-term relationship with singer-songwriter Shane MacGowan, whom she met at age 16; Clarke and MacGowan were married from 2018 until the latter's death in 2023.

Early life
Clarke grew up in the Irish countryside and went to national school in Renaniree. Her mother was born in Herbert Park and became pregnant with Victoria at the age of nineteen. She was abandoned by her father when she was a young baby.

Career
Clarke is a music journalist who has written for a number of newspapers and magazines. She is the author of Angel in Disguise, a memoir and spiritual guide written after she split up with MacGowan in her late 30s.

Personal life
Clarke had a long-term relationship with singer-songwriter Shane MacGowan, whom she met at sixteen, seven years his junior. She wrote the biography, A Drink with Shane MacGowan. They did not generally allow celebrities or journalists to frequent their house but Sinéad O'Connor previously visited them. After an 11-year engagement, they married in November 2018 in Copenhagen. Clarke was with MacGowan when he died of pneumonia on 30 November 2023.

She is a fan of literature and music. She is also a yoga enthusiast.

She believes in angels and claims to speak to them on a regular basis.

Popular culture
In 2007, she appeared on Celebrities Go Wild, an RTÉ reality television show in which eight celebrities had to fend for themselves in rural Connemara.

In December 2009, Clarke and McGowan appeared together on the RTÉ One reality television special Victoria and Shane Grow Their Own in which they attempted to tend to their own vegetables at an allotment in Dublin.

Clarke appeared on The Late Late Show with MacGowan on 26 February 2010 to discuss their single for the 2010 Haiti earthquake relief effort.