CILLA’S SON
Listening to Mum’s music helps me cope with her death
THE son of Cilla Black told yesterday how three years after her death he is at last getting over his grief.
Robert Willis, 48, her oldest child, is releasing a new album today in her memory after previously working last year on the hit show Cilla – The Musical.
Promoting the new record, he said: “I’ve been very lucky that I’ve been able to do these projects and celebrate what she was about.
“We’re in a good place, so when I see a clip or listen to some music, it makes me smile, it makes me happy. It doesn’t make me sad any more.
“I’ve been really fortunate that we’ve been able to do such great and exciting projects, it’s been brilliant.”
Liverpool girl Cilla had two other sons, Jack, 38, and Ben, 44, from her 30-year marriage to her showbiz agent Bobby Willis who died in 1999.
Singer Cilla, who also hosted TV shows Surprise, Surprise and Blind Date, died 15 years later aged 72 in August 2015 after falling at her holiday home in Spain.
Describing how Cilla’s death deeply affected all three sons, Robert added yesterday: “My two brothers work in TV and they’ve gone back to their jobs.
“For me, my life has changed, but you just kind of move on, you take that person who you love with you.
“There’s no right or wrong way to deal with bereavement, you do what’s right for you.”
Chart-topping Cilla collapsed in the heat while sunbathing, lost her balance and struck her head, causing a fatal stroke at her Costa Del Sol villa.
After her death it emerged she had left her sons a £15.2million fortune.
She broke into showbiz in the ’60s performing at Liverpool’s Cavern club, where The Beatles, who became friends of hers, got their big break.
Soon she was topping the charts with her first hit, Anyone Who Had A Heart.
The new album features Sir Cliff Richard, Sheridan Smith, who played Cilla in a TV biog, and Rebecca Ferguson. They perform on remastered tracks from Cilla’s back catalogue, accompanied by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
Robert said he was “thrilled” that Sir Cliff, a long-time friend of Cilla, had agreed to take part.
He added: “I didn’t want to ask him myself. I didn’t want to put that pressure on – if he didn’t want to do it, that would have been cool. But it was so brilliant that he did.”
Fellow Liverpudlian and X Factor star Rebecca Ferguson, 35, said she was “really grateful” to have been part of the record.
She said: “We grew up with Cilla, and for me she’s a big Liverpool icon. She and The Beatles put Liverpool on the map as a musical city.
“So when I got asked to do it, I was like, How can you say no? She’s our Cilla.”