Frank Sinatra - Sinatra's Widow Opens Up About Life With Frank

Barbara was married to the My Way hitmaker for more than 20 years until his death in 1998 and she has now told all about their time together in Lady Blue Eyes: My Life With Frank.

In the memoir, the 84 year old describes Sinatra as having a "Jekyll and Hyde personality", and details one incident when a game of Charades turned nasty and the crooner violently hurled a clock against a wall.

She writes, "Frank snatched the clock from my lap and gripped it tightly in his hands. For a moment I thought he might hit me with it. Refusing to be intimidated, I stared him out until he turned and hurled the clock against the door, shattering it into a hundred pieces."

But despite all of their problems, Barbara insists she felt like the "luckiest woman in the world" to be married to the superstar.

She adds, "A big part of Frank's thrill was the sense of danger he exuded, an underlying, ever-present tension only those closest to him knew could be defused with humour... He made me feel special and he put me on a pedestal... Even to say 'Mrs. Sinatra' out loud felt like bragging.

"For a long time I had to pinch myself almost daily to believe that I, Barbara Ann Blakeley, the gangly kid in pigtails from the whistle-stop of Bosworth, Missouri, had somehow become the wife of Francis Albert Sinatra. Could I really be married to the singer whose voice I'd first heard at a drive-in when I was fifteen years old?"