John Byrne: I was born after ‘loving’ incest between my mother and grandfather
Artist says taboo was ‘traditional’ and gave him ‘wonderful’ genes
ONE of Scotland’s leading artists has revealed he was born out of an incestuous relationship between his mother and his grandfather.
John Byrne, the former partner of Oscar-winning actress Tilda Swinton, has said his biological parents were actually his mother Alice and her own father, Patrick McShane.
Speaking about it for the first time yesterday, Mr Byrne, 77, said he was not ashamed of his heritage – which he learned about when he was still with Miss Swinton – and believes his mother was truly in love with her father.
He even believes the love affair – which ultimately drove his mother to madness – gave him a ‘wonderful mixture of genes’.
The artist and writer best known best for his hit 1980s TV series Tutti Frutti, starring Robbie Coltrane and Emma Thompson, only learned the truth about his past in 2002.
At the time the Paisley-born artist was already famous and living with Miss Swinton in the Easter Ross town of Tain with their sons Xavier and Honor.
Miss Swinton took a call from Mr Byrne’s cousin Aileen Kane to say her mother Helen had died and she felt the time was right to reveal a long-kept family secret involving his true parentage.
The Chronicles Of Narnia actress, who has starred in a series of blockbusters and is now tipped to be the first female
Doctor Who, encouraged her and said: ‘You’ve got to tell him.’
Mr Byrne learned about his extraordinary history a short time later, when he met up with his cousin in person.
He was told the man who raised him was not his father and his biological parents were actually his mother and his grandfather.
On learning the truth, Mr Byrne said ‘everything fell into place’. He recalled how as a child his mother would frequently walk the eight miles between their home in Ferguslie Park, Paisley, to see her father in Cardonald, Glasgow.
He said: ‘My mother was constantly voyaging out to Cardonald. I once thought she wanted him to go down on his bended knee and beg forgiveness. No. She was in love with her own father, utterly and totally. She just wanted to be in his company. She couldn’t even confess it. My own father didn’t know.’ But Mr Byrne later learned that the relationship between his mother and his grandfather was the cause of her mental illness. One of his earliest memories of his mother was of her ‘being swaddled in blankets and carried into the ambulance’.
She had gone mad and was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia, after being confined in a psychiatric hospital. She died in hospital aged 74.
Mr Byrne recalled feeling hatred toward his grandfather for some time after learning the truth about his heritage. His attitude, he admitted, had been: ‘He died of cancer, Hell mend him.’
Speaking to The Times, he said: ‘Helen told Aileen what my mother had told her, when she was much younger. Aileen asked Tilda: “Do you think I should tell Iain [a family name for Mr Byrne]?” ‘Tilda said: “You’ve got to tell him.” She called me in and handed me the phone.’ Mr Byrne said that he and Aileen later met in Glasgow and that was when he was told the truth. The artist, who designed album covers for Stealers Wheel, The Humblebums and The Beatles, even put together an exhibition to try to give artistic form to his confusion, although he later destroyed all of the paintings.
He has now come to terms with his mother and real father’s relationship. The artist feels no shame and is fully reconciled with his family’s past.
He said: ‘It’s because I admitted to myself that I adored my grandfather, beforehand. What did he do to me particularly, that damaged me?
‘I don’t think he did damage me. I think he gave me that wonderful mixture of genes with his own daughter, the eldest of the family.
‘That’s what they do in Ireland. I presume it’s what they do in unlettered places and lettered places. It’s traditional, and nobody speaks about it.’
Mr Byrne learned that his elder brother Jim was the son of the man who raised him, and admitted that the two siblings are physically unlike each other.
He has separated from Miss Swinton, 56, whom he met on the set of Your Cheatin’ Heart, the comedy drama series he wrote for the BBC. He now lives in Edinburgh with his partner of 12 years, stage lighting designer and pilates instructor Jeanine Davis.
Miss Swinton lives with Germanborn artist Sandro Kopp, 18 years her junior, whom she met on The Chronicles Of Narnia set.
Several of Mr Byrne’s paintings hang in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh and the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow.
Some of his most popular works have included striking portraits of Miss Swinton and Billy Connolly.
‘A wonderful mixture of genes’
‘She called me in and handed me the phone’