Bono: How I discovered my secret half-brother
U2 singer in the dark for decades after dad’s affair
U2 SINGER Bono has revealed he has a halfbrother, whose existence he was unaware of for decades.
He said he learned about his sibling in 2000 when he found out his dad had an affair.
Bono’s mum, who had never been told the true story, died in 1974 when he was 14.
The star said: “I could tell my father had a deep friendship with this gorgeous woman who was part of the family, and then they had a child which was all kept a secret. Nobody knew.” On speaking to his dad about the affair, he added: “I asked him did he love my mother and he said ‘yes’.
“I asked him ‘how could this happen?’ and he said ‘it can’ and that he was trying to do the right thing.”
The Irish star added he is “at peace” with the situation after talking to his dad, postal worker Bob.
Bono, 62, real name Paul Hewson, spoke about tough times following his mum Iris’s death from a brain aneurysm suffered at her father’s funeral.
He said in the interview on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs he should have given his dad more support, adding: “My father was going through a lot.
“His head was elsewhere because his heart was elsewhere.”
Bono said U2, formed in 1976, became “another family”. Bob died at 75 in 2001.
Bono, who has been pictured with numerous world leaders during his human rights campaigns, said it was “excruciating” for the band to see him in “certain company”.
But he added they backed it if it could help get things done.