Tragedy for Paul Young as wife loses brain tumour battle at 52
THE wife of singer Paul Young died yesterday following a secret twoyear battle with brain cancer.
Model Stacey met Paul on the video shoot for his second hit single, Come Back and Stay, in 1983. They went on to have three children together – daughters Levi, now 30, and Layla, 23, and son Grady, 20. Young is also step-father to Stacey’s ten-year-old son Jude.
Confirming the 52-year- old’s death yesterday, Young’s publicist said: ‘The singer Paul Young has announced that his wife, Stacey Young, sadly passed away today after a two-year fight with brain cancer.
‘ Stacey died peacefully at home surrounded by family, friends and her four children.’
Paul Young shot to fame in 1983 when his cover of the Marvin Gaye song Wherever I Lay My hat went to number one. A string of hits, including Every Time You Go Away and Love of The Common People, cemented his status as a teen idol.
he went on to perform at Live Aid in 1985, having sung the opening lines on the charity single Do They Know It’s Christmas? in 1984.
he retired from the public eye in the mid-90s, but remained friends with fellow pop alumni including Midge Ure and Tony hadley and Martin Kemp from Spandau Ballet.
The band’s founder member Steve norman was among those who offered condolences yesterday, writing on Twitter: ‘So shocked and saddened to hear of the passing of Stacey Young ... She was such a character and so down to earth.’
Paul and Stacey had tumultuous onoff relationship over three decades, although they had spent the past nine years together. In 1986, the model had a brief fling with motorbike stuntman Eddie Kidd, but married Young a year later. They split up in 2006 before getting back together three years later.
In the time they were separated, Mrs Young had her fourth child, Jude, with Israeli businessman Ilan Slazenger.
Following their reconciliation, Young, 62, became Jude’s stepfather and helped to raise him at their £1.8million house in Barnet, north London. Asked about bringing up his nonbiological son, the singer told the Daily Mail: ‘It’s not such a big thing.
‘he’s Stacey’s, and with our other children they are all brothers and sisters at the end of the day.
‘It doesn’t matter whose kid it is. he’s only a child.’ Speaking in 2014, Young said he was more in love with his wife than ever: ‘You have to work at marriage but it helps that I know we were meant to be together.
‘I have known that since I met her. She is funny; she has a good sense of humour. She’s a little bit wild, a little mad, but I love that about her.
‘And our children’s friends love coming round to our house because we are not a conventional family.’