Lady Cathy Ferguson, the wife of the former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has been confirmed dead at the age of 84.
As a woman from Glasgow, Cathy Holding met her husband while they were working together in a typewriter factory in 1964. They went on to get married two years later and also gave birth to three children and 12 grandchildren over the course of a relationship that endured for more than half a century.
The news was confirmed in a statement released on Friday afternoon by the Ferguson family. “We are deeply saddened to confirm the passing yesterday of Lady Cathy Ferguson, survived by her husband, three sons, two sisters, 12 grandchildren and one great-grandchild,” the statement read. “The family asks for privacy at this time.”
Recounting on some memories of Lady Ferguson, she once revealed she had feared that the man who went on to become the most successful manager in the history of British football was a “thug” when she first met him, as he was having a plaster on his face due to a football injury. She also recalled their first date, a trip to the cinema and a gift of a box of liquorice allsorts “of which he ate all of them”.
“That was my romantic day,” she told the 2021 documentary Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In, which was directed by their son Jason. “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.”
Sir Alex spoke about their relationship and of his debt he owes to Cathy upon his retirement as manager of Manchester United in 2013, after 27 years in the job. “My wife Cathy has been the key figure throughout my career, providing a bedrock of both stability and encouragement,” he said. “Words are not enough to express what this has meant to me.”
Ferguson has also seen her as the only person in the world he did not answer back to.
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Lady Cathy and Sir Alex’s son, Darren, twin of Jason, is manager of Peterborough United. Their eldest son, Mark, is an investment banker.