Being a singing star does not spare life from sores. Bono, Paul David Hewson of his real name, leader of the Irish group U2 – of which President Emmanuel Macron is a fan – knows something about it. Next November, he will publish his autobiography entitled Surrender, expected on November 2, 2022 by Fayard editions. A life-saving collection for the 62-year-old artist who had kept many secrets to himself until now.
In an interview for Desert Island Discs on BBC 4, Bono revealed that he had made a significant family discovery in 2000. At the time, the singer was celebrating his 40th birthday and was very far from assuming the existence of a half-brother that his father Brendan had given him. always hidden according to his own words: “I have another brother, whom I love and adore, who I never knew existed” he indicated. This son was born from an out-of-wedlock relationship of his father: “I could tell that my father had a deep friendship with this beautiful woman, who is part of the family, and then they had a child. And it’s all been kept secret […] Nobody knew.“
His mother Iris, meanwhile, was never aware. When Bono is only 14 years old, his mother dies of a stroke. At the time, he criticized the lack of reaction from his father, visibly more interested in things other than the disappearance of his wife. Learning of the existence of a half-brother 26 years later therefore put things in context: “My dad was going through a lot. Her head was somewhere else because her heart was somewhere else” he confided.
Father and son discussed: “I asked him if he loved my mother, and he said ‘yes’. And I said, ‘How could this happen?’, and he said, ‘It happens’, and that he had tried to work things out. He wasn’t apologizing, he was just stating the facts.” From now on “in peace“With this family secret discovered late in life, Bono took some time. He never forgave his father during his lifetime, the latter having died a year after the revelation. It was only in entering a chapel, in France, that the singer freed himself: “There was no one there, I lit a candle and knelt down and just said, ‘Look, I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you, you’ve been through a lot and if he please forgive me. And I felt free.“A happy ending anyway.