SAM FOX Loving women, losing Myra and finding happiness again
not my fault that Mick Fleetwood was stoned. It was difficult at the time. Before then I was the nation’s sweetheart. But I look back on it and I think, you know what? What an amazing feat it was to even get that job in the first place.”
Worse was to follow. In 1991 she sued her father after £1million was found to be missing from her accounts. She was awarded just over a third of that and the pair never spoke again before his death in 2000. “It was very difficult,” she says. “You can’t say you regret having your father as
your manager because he is your father. But there’s that saying: you can choose your friends but you can’t choose your family.
“Up till then me and my dad were very close. I was his little girl. He was very protective of me. It’s just a shame what drugs and alcohol can do to somebody. And that’s what puts it to bed in a way for me, I can blame it on that. Not on him.”
Although Sam, 51, continued to develop her career as a singer abroad during the 1990s, in this country she slipped from the public eye until in 2003 she dropped a bombshell that put her on every newspaper’s front page again, when she announced that she was in a relationship with her female manager Myra Stratton.
She confesses that at the time she was worried about how people might react. “I was a little bit scared. I thought, am I going to lose all my male fans?” she says. “But by that time I wasn’t in the glamour industry, it wasn’t like I was selling posters to teenage boys anymore. And the bottom line is I was very much in love and I wanted to be with her for the rest of my life, and I thought it was time to talk about it and be honest. I think most people were just happy that I was open and honest about it.”
MYRA sadly died of cancer in 2015 after a two-year battle with the disease. If it was the lowest point in Sam’s life, it has also, perhaps strangely, proved to be something of a catalyst for her too. “Losing her... I’d never gone through something like that before,” she says.
“It was just so upsetting to see the woman you love deteriorate and get sicker and sicker. And it made me grow up and see life for what it is. You have got to make the most of every moment.”
The result of that resolution to seize the day is both the autobiography and a new album, due out next year. And not only is Sam more upbeat and energised than perhaps at any time in her career since the late 1980s, she also claims to be happier than she has been for years. There is even a new relationship with Norwegian Linda Olsen, who along with her two sons has recently moved to live with Sam in Essex.
“I’m very much in a good place,” she laughs. “I’m really happy. I love having a family and I’m one of those people who if I’ve had a bad experience I look at the positive side.
“I want to always keep that chirpy, bubbly girl that made me famous right at the beginning. At the end of the day, that’s who I’ve always been.”
To pre-order Forever by Sam Fox £25.00 published by Backbeat Books January 10, call the Express Bookshop with your card details on 01872 562310. Alternatively send a cheque or postal order payable to The Express Bookshop to: Sam Fox Offer, PO Box 200, Falmouth, Cornwall TR11 4WJ or visit expressbookshop.com UK delivery is free.