Phil Collins has admitted his “personal life is a minefield”.
In a long-form interview with The Sunday Times, the Grammy winner opened up about his three failed marriages and revealed he hopes to fall in love again.
“My personal life is a minefield,” Phil, 75, told the outlet, before describing how his first marriage, to childhood sweetheart Andrea Bertorelli, failed after his constant international touring with the band Genesis impelled her to have an affair with their interior decorator.
“I felt I had a duty to the guys (in the band) not to be the one to say, I’m sorry, I can’t go to America three times this year and Europe twice and Japan,” he explained, before adding he had been “frustrated and angry” that Andrea had not been particularly understanding.
Phil’s next marriage, to Jill Tavelman – with whom he shares actress daughter Lily Collins, 37 – lasted 12 years, until he fell in love with a 21-year-old translator, Orianne Cevey. The split was made public after an angry, five-page fax he had sent to Jill was leaked to The Sun newspaper.
Finally, seven years later, his third wife left him and they divorced – only for Phil and Orianne to reunite and move to Florida together six years after that. Shortly afterwards, she blindsided him by marrying another man in Las Vegas.
“I don’t know if I want to go into it,” Phil initially told The Times of the final complication in his romantic life.
“She spent a lot of time in Las Vegas and bought a house there. And I was thinking it was for work. And I think some of it was, but some of it was definitely not.”
Despite his chaotic relationship history, Phil expressed hopes he might forge another relationship.
“I’d love to be in love again,” the singer said. “I would love a relationship. Kissing somebody, for example. You know, pretty basic stuff.”
