Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed he struggled to leave the house after his long-term wife Lady Cathy died.
Lady Cathy passed away on October 5 2023 at the age of 84, having been married to the former Manchester United boss for almost 58 years.
The Glaswegian mother of three and grandmother to 12 was described by her husband as his ‘bedrock’, who had helped nurse him back to health after his stroke following his retirement after 26 years at the club in 2013.
Sir Alex and Lady Cathy, as she was affectionately known, met in 1964 before tying the knot two years later.
She is widely acknowledged to have played a key role in helping Ferguson become the most successful manager in English football history. The Scot won 13 league titles at United as he turned the club into a powerhouse during the first two decades of the Premier League.
Now, Sir Alex has opened up on the loss of his wife, and explained how he struggled in the wake of her passing.
Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed he was housebound following the death of his wife Lady Cathy
The couple were married for nearly 60 years before Lady Cathy passed away in October 2023
Ferguson had lived in a Cheshire mansion with his wife until he sold the house to move next door to his son
‘After my wife passed, I was stuck in the house a lot,’ Ferguson told the BBC. ‘I moved house, into the country, next door to my son.
‘But it’s not good enough just to sit watching TV, so I decided to travel. I went to Saudi [Arabia], Hong Kong and Bahrain.
‘Occupy yourself. Dealing with the dementia group has been good for me. It’s something that I enjoy.’
Ferguson had been living in a £3.25million Cheshire mansion and finally sold it – five months after putting it on the market – in April last year. He bought a £1.2million house in an idyllic village next door to his son Darren.
When he announced his retirement as United manager in 2013 after an unprecedented period of success for the Red Devils, Sir Alex said: ‘My wife Cathy has been the key figure throughout my career, providing a bedrock of both stability and encouragement. Words are not enough to express what this has meant to me.’
He has also described her as the only person in the world he does not answer back to – quite something for a man renowned for issuing terrifying ‘hairdryer treatments’ to footballers not pulling their weight.
The couple having met while they were both working at a typewriter factory in Glasgow.
In 2021 documentary Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In – directed by their son Jason – Cathy revealed she had originally thought Sir Alex looked like a ‘thug’ before she softened on him and they went on a cinema date.
He has also expressed his concerns with dementia as his brother struggles with the illness
She said: ‘I just saw him walking through and I thought he was a thug. Then I found out he was a footballer and that didn’t make him any different to me.
‘He bought me a box of Liquorice Allsorts at the movies, of which he ate all of them, and a local paper when we came out. That was my romantic day.
‘We got married in Glasgow registry office in 1966 and that was the start. I went to my work and he went to his football.’
At the time the city was divided by sectarianism – Lady Cathy was a Catholic while Sir Alex was Protestant – but the footballer was following the example of his father, who himself had ‘broken a taboo’ by marrying a Catholic woman.
In his retirement, Ferguson has been working closely with dementia charities and it’s a cause close to his heart amid his brother’s struggles.
He said: ‘It’s not easy. I have to be in touch with him a lot. He recognises me [but] the memory’s not great.’
He continued: ‘It’s at the back of my mind all the time. You think, “I wonder if he’s in just now”, or if I should give him a phone [call]. I try to do that each day.
‘I keep telling him [to] write things down. I think he tries to do that, but he forgets a lot of the time. When you get to my age, you do have a little worry about whether your memory is going to stand up.
‘I’m 84 in December and there are moments when I forget things. I probably did that 20 years ago, 30 years ago… no-one’s blessed with a 100 per cent memory. But when it comes to football, when I was a manager, the memory has always been important. Now I do a lot of crosswords, I sing a lot and read.’
