Bono admits his 40-year marriage to his wife Ali has been ‘a relay race’

Bono has revealed that his 40-year marriage to wife Ali Hawson has been “like a relay race,” while detailing the moment their relationship neared breaking point.

The 62-year-old U2 frontman, who described his upcoming memoir as a “love letter” to his wife, told… The Sunday Times Magazine that Ali wanted to “jump out of their union” at some point in the 1980s after becoming less present during their domestic life.

Bono added that his love for Ali helped them through the “dark waters” of their relationship and that they could always “withdraw” each other in difficult times.

Ahead of the release of his memoir Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, Bono offered rare insight into his marriage to Ali.

He explained: “It’s not as if our love had no dark undercurrents or salt water, [but] we got through those bits where it was hard to see where we were. Ali calls it “the work of love”. I wish she wouldn’t use the word ‘work’ because I feel like there’s an adjective, ‘hard’, that gets inferred…

“If one of us got lost, the other would bring us back, that’s how it has been for us. I think in relationships someone is in charge at some point, but you trade. It’s a relay race.’

Bono shared that one of the challenging moments during his marriage to Ali came in the 1980s, when he had become “less present” at home due to his busy touring schedule.

He added: “The most important thing about Ali was that she would never be ‘her indoors’,” he says. “She would never just be my girlfriend and she would never just be my wife. So when I was home, I’d better be there.

“And in the eighties I was home at one point, but I wasn’t there. And then I thought she wanted to jump.’

Despite the challenges, Bono and Ali’s marriage is now stronger than ever, and they are proud parents of four children, Jordan, 33, Eve, 31, Elijah, 23, and John, 21.

In his memoir, Bono also reflects on his relationship with his U2 bandmates, adding that after decades of performing together, there were times when they “lost love” for each other.

In an excerpt from his memoirs, published by The sunwrote the Beautiful Day frontman: “We break up all the time, after tours or albums where we’ve had to stretch a little too far…

“We’ve never been critical of each other in public, but it’s not a criticism to say that sometimes we run out of love. It happens. The source of friendship can dry up in a family, a marriage, a community, a bond.

“A good strategy for me is to keep going back to the source. To drop my bucket into the well in the hope of a refill.’

It comes after Bono confessed to having a “belligerent relationship” with his late father Brendan Hewson while appearing on The Graham Norton Show on Friday.

He had previously revealed that Brendan was having an affair with his Aunt Barbara and that he subsequently has a cousin, who is actually his half-brother.

While promoting his new memoir Surrender, the U2 star said of his father, who died of cancer in 2001: “We had a combative relationship and I wanted to impress him, so I flew him to Texas to see me in concert.” .

“Then he came in and his eyes were all red and I thought, ‘Oh my god, my dad is going to compliment me and I swallowed hard.’

“He held out his hand and said, ‘You’re very professional.’ That meant everything to him – and from him it was the greatest compliment.’

Last week, Bono revealed that one of his cousins ​​is actually his half-brother.

The shocking revelation comes four months after the rocker first revealed he had a sibling whose parentage had been kept a family secret for decades.

Appearing on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs in June, Bono revealed that his half-brother, whom he did not name at the time, was born after an affair in the 1960s between his father Bob and a “beautiful woman.”

Now he has revealed that woman was his Aunt Barbara and their child is Scott Rankin, a stock market analyst and public servant.

Bono’s mother Iris died in 1974, when the musician was 14, unknowingly of the infidelity.

Barbara, who still lives in Dublin, was married to Iris’ brother, Jack, who died in 2020.

Uncovering the affair between Bob and Iris at the time in conservative Catholic Ireland would have had potentially life-destroying consequences, so instead it remained buried for decades.

And Bono — whose real name is Paul Hewson — didn’t learn of his father’s devastating secret until 2000, a year before Bob died of cancer.