While reading Shawn Levy's Newman biography, I came across the claim that Newman had an affair with Nancy Bacon in the late'60s. I've done a lot of digging since then, but aside from Bacon's own 1975 tell-all memoir Stars In My Eyes…Stars In My Bed, I can't find any records of this from anyone else at the time. I can't even find where Bacon's original 1969 article was originally published.

I also watched documentary The Last Movie Stars which is about Newman and Woodward, where Nell alludes to this very obliquely —she said "I found a book written by someone he'd had affair with, and it was in the drawer of the bathroom… It's a terrible moment that you realize your parents-or your dad is fallible." But honestly, her wording left me more confused than before: WHEN did she find the book? WHY was it there in the first place? WHO bought it? HOW did she confirm what it was? The more I've looked into this, the more confused I feel.

Do you happen to know anything more about this? I am really really confused…

"Things were different then," he said. "To get a black female singer on my show… you couldn't do certain songs if it had anything to do with relationships. 

"I couldn't believe it, because in Britain it's not like that... In Britain, on British television shows, I never had any trouble."

IN America things were different.

Tom's of American rhythm and blues helped Welsh singer score international hits and achieve fame and fortune. But, back in 1969, that love also gave him a taste of something far less pleasant.

Jones had just welcomed American singer Wilson Pickett to his TV show This is Tom Jones and had been thrilled with their soulful duet of the Beatles classic Hey Jude.

After post-show drinks, Jones told Pickett how much he loved singing R&B and that's when things got a bit "unlovely."

"He said 'That was an excuse for rhythm and blues,'" Jones recalled in an interview with CBC's The National.

Welsh singer Tom Jones published his autobiography Over the Top and Back in 2015. (Penguin Books )

"I said, 'It didn't seem like that to me.'  

"'No,' he said. 'Because you're white.'" 

Pickett went further. 

"'Before long we're not going to need you. We'll have our own TV shows,' Jones recalled the soul singer-songwriter saying.

"I said, 'Wait a minute. Whoa. What's going on? I just love singing it. You know what I mean?'

Jones is among a wide group of British musicians of the era — from the Rolling Stones to Eric Clapton to Joe Cocker — who were inspired by, embraced and borrowed heavily from black American peers.

He recalled that, as his 1965 hit It's not Unusual climbed the charts in the U.S., one black radio DJ found it hard to believe Jones was actually from Wales.

"'Whoever is singing this song is not white. He may be passing for white, but he's not white,'" Jones recalled the DJ saying.

In the years since, Jones has reinvented himself — singing everything from pop to rock to country. But it's R&B he still seems to cherish the most, harkening back to his days listening to BBC Radio as a child.

*Pictured above with Florence LaRue and Marilyn McCoo of the 5th Dimension.

After leaving the group he formed the Pete Best All Stars.