‘We had a combative relationship’: Bono reflects on receiving rare compliment from his late father

Bono confessed to having a “combatant relationship” with his late father Brendan Hewson when he appeared on The Graham Norton Show on Friday.

The 62-year-old singer thought about receiving a rare compliment from the mailman, once flying him to his concert in Texas.

It comes after he revealed that Brendan was having an affair with his Aunt Barbara and that he goes on to have 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.

Family: The 62-year-old singer (right) reflected on receiving a rare compliment from the mailman (left), once flying him to his Texas concert (pictured in 2000)

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.

Bono appeared on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs in June and told presenter Lauren Laverne 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.

Anecdote: The U2 star said of his father: ‘We had a combative relationship and I wanted to impress him, so I flew him to Texas to see me in concert’

He added: ‘Then he came in and his eyes were all red and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, my dad is going to compliment me and I swallowed hard”

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.

In an interview with the Irish TimesBono spoke of his affection for Mr. Rankin, a father of three children in their early fifties, and explained how he suspected they were more than cousins.

“We felt like brothers long before we knew we were,” he said. “I love Scott and his mother Barbara. I must have known something was up, and I must have held my father responsible for making my mother a little unhappy, like children just pick things up.’

Concert: “He held out his hand and said, “You’re very professional.” That meant everything to him – and from him it was the greatest compliment” (Bono pictured in 1983)

Bono told Desert Island Discs that learning of his brother’s existence helped him understand his father’s behavior at the time of Iris’s sudden death.

“My father went through a lot,” he said in the program.

“His head was elsewhere because his heart was elsewhere.

“It is a very close family and I could see that my father had a deep friendship with this beautiful woman who was part of the family, and then they had a child and this was all kept secret.”

Mr Rankin’s professional career couldn’t be further from Bono’s – he is said to have spent over 15 years working for Davy Group, Ireland’s largest stockbroker, before becoming a civil servant in the Irish Treasury.

Olive Bryan, Iris’ younger sister, seemed pained when approached by this newspaper after the Desert Island Discs unveiling. “I’d rather not talk about it because it’s way too personal,” she said.

Trevor Stunt, another of Bono’s cousins, said, “Bono and the half-brother have a great relationship.

It’s positive, there’s no animosity.” He added that some family members were in the dark about the affair until just before the Desert Island Discs episode aired.

The Graham Norton Show airs on BBC One at 10:40 PM on Friday, October 28, 10:40 PM, too available on BBC iPlayer.

Wow! It comes after he revealed that Brendan was having an affair with his Aunt Barbara and that he goes on to have a cousin, who is actually his half-brother, Scott Rankin (pictured)