Bono has revealed the identity of his secret half-brother, who he first spoke about in June, as his cousin Scott Rankin.
The U2 frontman first learned that he had a secret half-brother in 2000 after it was revealed that his father, Bob Hewson, was having an affair with his wife's sister, and Bono's aunt, Barbara. Bob finally shared the news after he was diagnosed with cancer and he later died in 2001.
According to the singer, the affair happened when his mother, Iris, was still alive, and she never knew. Bono now says that Scott always felt like a brother to him.
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He told the Irish Times: "The truth is with Scott, we felt like brothers long before we knew we were. I love Scott and his mother, Barbara. I must have known that something was up, and I must have held my father responsible for kind of making my mother unhappy in the way kids just pick up things.”
Bono went on to say that his relationship with his father had its ups and downs. He said: "I just longed for the attention of my father, and I have some lovely memories; it wasn't all combative.
"Music was the thing that soothed his aching heart. It sounds like a line from a country song. But it's actually opera I am talking about. That is why he was attracted to the opera, because he was one, and I suppose he had the voice and this is how he gave it to me. It is never the route you expect."
The U2 frontman also told of how the sudden death of his mother, Iris, when he was just 14 years old affected him. He said: "These things that shape us are huge gifts in the end. At least they were to me because the wound that was opened up by my mother's passing so quickly... became this hole, this void, that I filled with music.
"Though the family seemed to disappear in that moment, I started finding other families: Ali's [his wife] family, the band, alternative families. In that sense, I am an easy read. You can see what happened. I definitely failed to appreciate how much my life as an artist and an activist were being covered by my partner and though when I was home I was really at home, there were times when I was home and I wasn’t.
"I was somewhere else in my head. And that nearly drove Ali away. But the two of us have, at different times, had our love tested, and the sense that one will get the other home overpowers all other desires."
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