U2 FRONTMAN BONO has revealed that he has a half-brother he only found out about at the turn of the century.
Bono, real name Paul Hewson, described how he “adores” his brother but that he only knew of his existence in the year 2000.
He explained how nobody in his family was aware of the child, inlcuding Bono’s mother, Iris, who died when the singer was 14.
Speaking to Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio’s Desert Island Discs, Bono said: “I do have another brother whom I love and adore that I didn’t know I had, or maybe I did.
“My father was obviously going through a lot but partly his head was elsewhere because his heart was elsewhere. So I think that was part of the problem I was picking up as a kid.
“It’s a very close family and I could tell that my father had a deep friendship with this gorgeous woman who is part of the family and then they had a child and this was all kept a secret.”
“I asked him [his father] did he love my mother and he said yes, and I asked him how could this happen and he said, ‘it can’ and that he was trying to put it right, trying to do the right thing.
“He wasn’t apologising, he was just stating these are the facts. I’m at peace with it.”
Bono explained to Lauren Laverne that he and his father Bob always had a complex relationship and often did not see eye to eye.
“It was a complicated relationship with Bob,” Bono said. “I’m sure I was hard to deal with and the annoying gene would have been very present. And he was coping with a lot.
“I subsequently found out that he was coping with other stuff in his own life. I feel I wasn’t there for him in the way I should have been.
“He was very droll, very funny but it got rough, [we] boys would be scrapping. I apologised to my father in a little chapel in France after he passed away. I went up to this little chapel, there was nobody there and I lit a candle and I got on my knees and said I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you, you went through a lot. And I felt free.”
You can listen to the whole interview here.
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