Jo Cox’s widower Brendan today revealed their children were ‘excited’ when he broke the news he was going to propose seven years after their mother’s murder, with his youngsters proudly telling him: ‘You’re never going to do well again’.
Brendan Cox, whose wife Jo – a Labor MP – was shot and stabbed to death by a far-right as she met voters in 2016, is tying the knot with Anna Ryder, director of the Killed Women Network which supports bereaved families of women and girls.
The couple are believed to have met through a mutual friend two years ago and are thought to be planning a woodland ceremony in Herefordshire, which Brendan said they were both ‘very much looking forward to celebrating with our family’.
A source told The Sun newspaper last night: ‘They are very happy together. It’s good news for families. Brendan is a great father and his focus has been very much on the children. It was their enthusiasm that led Brendan and Anna to take this step. They are very excited for the wedding.’
And taking to ITV’s This Morning program today, dad-of-two Brendan said his children Quilin, 12, and Lezla, 10, were delighted at the news as he admitted he ‘never thought’ he would love again following Joe’s horrific murder. will get
Brendan Cox, 44, met Anna Ryder, 37, two years ago through a mutual friend.
Joe was shot and stabbed by extremist Thomas Meir in 2016 while attending surgery in his Batley and Spain constituency in Birstall.
Taking to ITV’s This Morning program today, father-of-two Brendan said he was delighted to have his children Quilin, 12, and Lezla, 10, newly married to Anna Ryder.
Congratulating him on his engagement to Ms Ryder, This Morning host Lorraine Kelly said: ‘Joe wouldn’t have wanted you to be single.’
Brendan said: ‘No, actually a friend of ours had sadly lost their husband before Joe died and we talked about it at the time about what we would do if one of us died. And we were both like – I remember Joe saying at the time – we should get married next week.
‘I always knew he would want it. But I never thought it would happen because when you lose someone like Joe you never think you’ll find someone with energy, love, enthusiasm and excitement like Joe. I am incredibly lucky that I have.
Speaking of the kids, he added: ‘They are in really good form. Actually before I asked Anna to marry me, I said “I’m thinking about asking Anna to marry me, what do you think?”
‘I think their response was “You’re never going to do better than Anna” which I think was a beautiful thing and should have been appreciated. But they are very excited about it.’
Joe was shot and stabbed by extremist Thomas Meir while attending his Batley and Spain election surgery in Birstol, West Yorkshire, during the June 2016 referendum on EU membership. Mayer, a white supremacist, was sentenced to life in prison for killing her later that year.
Since her tragic death, Brendan founded the Together Coalition and has worked to support the survivors of terrorist attacks as well as raise the couple’s children Quilin and Lezla.
Labor MP Joe was shot and stabbed by a far-right as he attended a surgery in his constituency in Barstall, West Yorkshire, in June 2016.
The Jo Cox Foundation was also set up in his wife’s memory, working to spread the MP’s message of unity from his first speech in Parliament where he said: ‘We have more in common than divides us’.
Speaking about Lorraine this morning, Mr Cox said he and Joe had spoken about what they would do if one of them died and claimed he wanted to remarry her if she did.
‘I always knew he wanted it but I never thought it would happen,’ she said. ‘When you lose someone like Joe, you never think you’ll get someone like that.’
And when he told his children he was going to propose to Anna, his two children clearly supported him, saying, ‘You’re never going to do better than Anna.’
Jo and Brendan married in 2009 and their children were aged just five and three at the time of her death.
Brendan and Anna’s families are said to be supportive of their wedding and the couple are said to be planning a woodland ceremony in Herefordshire.
A source told The Sun: ‘They are very happy together. It’s good news for families. Brendan is a great father and his focus has been very much on the children.
Brendan and Anna (pictured on holiday) are reportedly planning a woodland ceremony in Herefordshire.
Anna Ryder (pictured) met Brendan through her work as director of Killed Women, a network that works to support bereaved families of victims of domestic violence.
‘It was in their spirit that Brendan and Anna wanted to take this step. They are very excited for the wedding.’
Jo Cox was brutally murdered by a lone Mair, while he was at a local surgery for his constituents.
Mair, 53, spent hours looking up information on Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist organizations before brutally attacking his hometown Labor MP in Batley, West Yorkshire.
He waited outside Birstall Library for the mother-of-two to arrive for elective surgery before stabbing her repeatedly with a 7-inch dagger and shooting her with a .22 rimfire rifle.
He brutally attacked the mother-of-two, stabbing her in the heart, lungs, stomach and liver, before shooting her three times in the hand as she tried to protect her head.
Heroically, Ms Cox warned her two colleagues to stay back and told them to ‘let him hit me, don’t let him hit you’ as Mair continued his attack.
The neo-Nazi was arrested about 30 minutes after killing Ms Cox and told police he was a ‘political activist’.
Mair was found in her bag with a leaflet from the pro-EU Britain Stronger in Europe campaign, which the Labor MP supported.
He can also be heard shouting: ‘It’s for Britain, Britain will always come first.’ Another witness said the killer shouted: ‘We British freedom’ and ‘Keep Britain free’.
Jo Cox’s killer Thomas Meyer, 53, researched ‘matricide’ online and may have been on his way to killing his mother when police arrested him
Mair used the weapon to shoot Ms Cox during his vicious attack on the 41-year-old on June 16, 2016.
Mair viciously attacked the mother-of-two, stabbing her in the heart, lungs, stomach and liver and then shooting her three times with her hand as she tried to protect her head. The knife used by the police during the attack has been recovered
Mrs Cox bravely told her accomplices to stay away as she was brutally attacked by Mair
During his trial. A jury later heard that the savage had researched Tory Ian Gow – the last sitting MP to be killed when he was killed by the IRA in 1990 – and Conservative Yorkshire MP William Hague, who supported Remain before launching his attack.
As well as researching a ‘far-right’ internet publication, Mair investigated whether his .22 caliber rifle was ‘deadly enough to kill a man with a bullet to the head’.
And he even saw the death penalty in Japan, more Nazi elements and the act of killing one’s mother
The court heard that the night before Mrs Cox was killed, she researched the coffin, Waffen SS and lying in state.
Mair was handed a life sentence during a hearing at London’s Old Bailey, becoming one of 70 prisoners in the UK to serve such a term, joining the likes of Peter Sutcliffe, Ian Brady, Dale Cregan and Michael Adebolajo.
Speaking after his wife’s killer was convicted, Mr Cox said: ‘We feel nothing but pity for him that his life was so loveless and so full of hate, the only way he could find meaning was to attack a woman who was everything. represented. Extreme cowardice about the country.’
Jo Cox’s sister Kim Leadbeater and her mother and father Jean Leadbeater and Gordon Leadbeater hug outside the Old Bailey courthouse after Thomas Mair was convicted of their daughter’s murder,
Mair was emotionless as he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Jo Cox
Mrs Cox’s sister Kim said of her family: ‘While we can’t change what happened, we can try and choose how we react – I for one will not be beaten. It was the last thing my sister wanted. As a family we will respond with strength, love and positivity.’
The jury took just 90 minutes to return the verdict. Trial judge Mr Justice Wilkie refused Mair’s request to make a statement to the court after the jury had spoken.
The judge told Mair that Ms Cox was a ‘true patriot’, he was not. The judge said Mair’s murderous attack on the MP was ‘brutal and callous’.
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