As she prepares to sing for Britain at Eurovision, Bonnie Tyler tells of the grief and emotional turmoil she's had to overcome since her 80s heyday
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Bonnie Tyler is wearing a black bra and lacy plum-coloured pants. I know this because she tells me so. Bonnie likes ‘nice knickers’. She can’t abide ‘the ones that give you a line’.
I also know she has Botox injections ‘on the forehead and the crow’s feet’ twice a year, slaps on her face and false eyelashes the moment she steps out of the shower and is dotty about her property developer husband Robert Sullivan. They met four decades ago when he was a black belt judo champion.
‘I was doing an audition. He walked in front of the stage and I thought, “Cor, who’s he?” I really fancied him like hell,’ she says.
‘He was a dead ringer for Warren Beatty, honestly – handsome with a head full of hair. It’s grey now and he’s lost a bit but he’s still handsome.
Lovely, what-you-see-is-what-you-get Bonnie Tyler, 61, garrulous, hilarious and as open as a pop-up storybook
I remember when I was pregnant I felt randy as hell. I was 39. Have you ever been pregnant?’ she asks. ‘We were at it like... no, you’d better not put that, let’s just say I felt really randy.’
Lovely, what-you-see-is-what-you-get Bonnie, 61, garrulous, hilarious and as open as a pop-up storybook, has been married for 40 years. ‘I think people give up too easily,’ says Bonnie, who almost gave up herself following a period of unfaithfulness.
‘We were young. We were kids. We were in our early twenties. It was nothing and it meant nothing. We were spending too much time apart. For the first ten years I used to travel with my band and my manager, but I didn’t like travelling without Robert. I thought, “I’m not liking this.” I said, “You either travel with me or I’m going to come back and sing locally.”
'He’s always with me and it’s easy because we love each other. He’s got loads of businesses. He’s reinvested everything I’ve made and made it a lot better, which is just as well because I’d give too much away.’
Robert is actually very, very good with money. Today there’s a mansion in Mumbles, South Wales, 17 houses and stables in Berkshire, a farm in New Zealand, land in Portugal plus a home there in the Algarve where their yacht is moored in the harbour and where they spend half the year.
She’s jetting off there with her sister, brother-in-law and nephew a few days after we meet. ‘I can’t wait because when I get off that plane in Portugal I just switch off and it’s wonderful.
'We’re going to go out to this little island on the boat where you anchor down and they send a little taxi boat to get you and take you to this place where there are no cars or anything like that. It’s great.’
Mumbles is the village near Swansea where Catherine Zeta-Jones grew up. Catherine’s father is Robert’s cousin and Bonnie sang at her splendid New York wedding to Michael Douglas in 2000.
Whenever Catherine returns to her childhood home, the families get together for a good old-fashioned knees-up. ‘I’m her mother’s friend really,’ says Bonnie.
One of six children, Bonnie has nephews and nieces coming out of her ears
‘When Catherine’s home she has a party and we get together. She really is a lovely person and so happy with Michael. Fortunately, he’s come through the throat cancer. He’s a fighter.’
One of six children, Bonnie has nephews and nieces coming out of her ears. Her beloved mother Elsie always told her to ‘keep the family tight’ and Bonnie loves nothing more than to spoil them.
She’s a hugely generous soul. ‘I’ve got beautiful nieces and nephews and they all love me – Auntie Gaynor,’ which is the name she went by until she was signed by RCA records in 1976, recorded the brilliant Lost In France and became a mega-famous, mega-rich country rock star with magnificent hits such as It’s A Heartache, Total Eclipse Of The Heart and Holding Out For A Hero.
‘I’ve got my feet on the ground because I’ve got a lovely family waiting for me when I get home, even though they’re not my flesh and blood. I haven’t got children. That’s my only regret I suppose.’
Sadly, Bonnie’s pregnancy ended in miscarriage after two-and-a-half months and she never became pregnant again. ‘We left the first one too late. We were always going to do it next year, next year, next year – you know?’ she says. ‘When we decided to stop all precautions and go for it, I was 39.
'It happened straight away. I remember looking at the tester stick and I couldn’t believe it, a line came then another line. I got back into bed, pulled the bedclothes over my head and thought, “Oh no, oh no!” Then I thought, “Wow, I’m 39 and I’m pregnant. Ooh, that’s clever!” But it didn’t last. I had a miscarriage. It was horrible. We kept trying again but nothing happened.’
She shakes her head.
‘I really do believe it was God’s way of showing me I wasn’t barren. It was as if He was saying, “Well, you know you can be pregnant now, but it’s not meant for you.”’ Was that a comfort? ‘In a strange sort of way, yes, to know I could have children but it wasn’t for me.’ She pauses for a moment.
Her blue eyes swim with tears. She sniffs. Smiles. Changes the subject. ‘You remind me of Lulu. Are you related or something?’ Um, no.
‘I’m told sometimes I look like Goldie Hawn and I get chuffed about that.’ She swishes her thick blonde hair from her face and looks, well, chuffed to pieces.
‘I’m told sometimes I look like Goldie Hawn and I get chuffed about that.’ She swishes her thick blonde hair from her face and looks, well, chuffed to pieces
Despite her star waning in Britain, Bonnie’s continued to enjoy a hugely successful career in Europe over the past two decades. We’re actually here in a plush Covent Garden hotel because she’s about to represent the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest with her song Believe In Me.
She was asked after sending a demo of her new album Rocks And Honey to the BBC. ‘When we finished the new album we sent a demo to the BBC to see if anybody was interested in playing it when it comes out in May and someone picked up on Believe In Me. They thought, “This would be a great track for Eurovision.” So they got in touch with me and asked if I’d be interested. It’s such a great opportunity.’
Her raw, catchy entry has already had nearly a million hits on YouTube so she’ll hopefully fare better than Engelbert Humperdinck, who only managed to scrape five points more than Norway at the bottom of the table with seven last year.
‘He’s got a great voice but I didn’t think the song was good enough,’ she says. ‘We’re in with a good chance but at the same time if I don’t win I’m not going to be pulling my hair out or anything because it’s the way Eurovision is. I think I’m just going to give it my best shot and enjoy it.
'Just think of all the publicity my album will have. It’s a brilliant opportunity because 120 million people watch that show.’
Bonnie was brought up in a decent, hard-working family that shared a deep faith. Her father was a coal miner and her mother ‘a real mum who didn’t have any favourites and spoilt us all rotten.
Bonnie was brought up in a decent, hard-working family that shared a deep faith
We didn’t have much money or anything but the love my mother had for us – I can’t tell you – and it was no different for any of us. She was a shy person herself but she wanted us to get on. She always said, “Treat people as you’d like to be treated yourself. And don’t change.” I miss her terribly.’
Bonnie’s mother died of Alzheimer’s 12 years ago and I know she’d hand over every one of the huge diamonds that dazzle on her tiny hands to have her back.
‘Alzheimer’s is a horrible thing,’ she says. ‘Some people are naive about it. They think, “Oh it’s just your memory” but my mother was in terrible pain. Your body closes down. She didn’t know if she’d eaten or if she wanted to eat.
'She couldn’t remember how to walk. Towards the end she didn’t know us. It came gradually, then it got worse. In the last three months it was horrible. She used to say about my father, “I don’t know who he is, but he’s a nice man.”
Bonnie Tyler and her husband, property investor, Robert Sullivan
‘He died of an aneurism a year and a half after my mother. He just didn’t want to live without her. They were married for 64 years.’ Bonnie’s eyes are swimming with tears again. Tears that spill down her cheeks. Tears that make the mascara on those false eyelashes run. She dabs at them with her finger.
‘Oh no, this is going to turn out to be a right sob story,’ she says. Bonnie prefers laughter to tears, but they won’t stop. ‘When we used to go up to her grave that was heartbreaking. He’d be standing over her and he’d say, “I won’t be long now.” I’d be saying, “Oh Dad, I don’t want to hear that.”’
There are more tears. ‘You ought to be Piers Morgan you. I forgot to bring my bloody make-up bag.’ I tell her I’d prefer to look like Lulu than Piers. She laughs for a brief moment, then she’s back with her dad. ‘The sad thing was I was in Portugal when he died,’ she says.
‘Before I went I’d given him a lift to Neath where he’d have half a pint in the snug at The Castle pub with what was left of his friends – God help him, he was always going to funerals. I dropped him off and I remember him getting out of the car. I was squashing him.’
She hugs herself as she hugged her dad. ‘He said, “You go now and have a lovely time. You deserve it.”’ She’s sobbing. ‘That was the last time I saw him until I came back to the funeral parlour.’
Her distress is such a raw, painful thing it’s difficult to witness. Then she says, ‘I passed a poster on the way here with a little girl saying to people, “Aren’t you lucky you’ve got a home to go to.” There’s this little face looking at you and it’s not fair – some people, the way they treat their kids and everything.’
She shrugs. Robert is waiting for her in the next room. ‘I’m so blessed. He takes such good care of me. Even last week we were finishing a tour in Germany with Paul Rodgers – you know, Paul from Free – and his wife.
She said, “I’m going to miss you after this, but what I’m going to miss most is seeing your husband there every night singing every word with you and looking at you so adoringly.” I said, “Oh come on.” She said, “I tell you, it’s wonderful.”’
Bonnie lights up like a sparkly Eurovision jumpsuit, which is so much nicer than seeing her sadness, and stands to say goodbye. ‘It was lovely to think of my father again that way,’ she says. ‘Maybe that’s what gives us the light and shade in songs, the emotions we carry with us. Come here. Give me a hug.’
Bonnie’s new album Rocks And Honey, featuring her Eurovision single Believe In Me, will be released on Monday 6 May. The Eurovision Song Contest final will air on Saturday 18 May on BBC1.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2310908/Bonnie-Tyler-As-prepares-Eurovision-singer-tells-grief-shes-overcome.html#ixzz2QyhQktB1
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