Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
SPEAKS OUT OVER HER SUFFERING Turbulent love life...
was a backing singer on his UK tour. He later invited her to Warwickshire to work as his personal assistant in his countryside mansion.
Starr, a father of six, then proposed outside a jeweller’s in April 2011 and they tied the knot two years later before splitting in 2015.
Sophie, who now lives close to their former marital home in Warwickshire, said the volatile relationship left her suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and anxiety.
The former singer describes how she would succumb to panic attacks if she heard Starr’s music or saw him on TV.
“They were trigger things, which would set me off,” she says.
“He was a big Elvis Presley fan and used to sing a lot of Elvis. At one point I couldn’t listen to any Elvis. If it came on the radio I’d turn it off or if I was in the pub I would walk out.
Now I’m actually able to face stuff and at times enjoy them.
“I can listen to the kind of music he used to sing and can even watch him on TV without having negative emotion attached to it. I’m able to enjoy it, rather than it being a trigger.”
Sophie told the Mirror last year how cruel Starr said he would “do the job himself ” after she began to self-harm.
She later twice tried to kill herself in a desperate bid to escape the nightmare marriage. Yet despite the abuse she suffered, Sophie helped repatriate Starr’s body from Spain so his children could say a final goodbye. Nearly a year on from his funeral, she has not been able to bring herself to visit his grave in
Prescot, Merseyside. She says: “I said my final goodbyes at the funeral. I don’t think there is any reason to go and visit.
“With the way things were when he died, I felt I did what I needed to do, to enable the kids to say their goodbyes. We all worked together to do what needed to be done, with the repatriation and everything.
“The day went really well. The family welcomed me with open arms, which was a relief because I was fearful of how it would go.
“They were absolutely lovely. Since his death I’ve become even closer to Freddie’s kids, we’re all connected on Facebook. It’s good being able to see what’s going on and say hello. It’s nice.
Things have ended positively. Before Freddie died everyone was just so disconnected. Him dying brought us all back together.
“We all knew there were other people, other children, but only at the funeral were we able to connect and come together as a family.
“The funeral was emotional. It’s hard to think he passed away on his own. There was sadness that it had come to that, when it could have been so much different.”
Starr was a manic, old fashioned comedian and impressionist, who started out in Liverpool as a bricklayer and boxer. In 1967 he won the talent show Opportunity Knocks with his impressionist musical group The Delmonts and became a familiar face on TV through the 1970s before eventually fading and making occasional TV appearances and touring.
He was married five times, first to Betty Simpson in 1960, then to Sandy Morgan in 1974. Then in 1998 he wed Donna Smith. They split but then