Bee Gees Barry met his wife through Jimmy Savile: Singer left red-faced after he refuses to discuss the story of how they were introduced during interview with Piers Morgan

By Tim Lamden Showbusiness Correspondent For The Daily Mail

Published: 16:54 EST, 1 February 2017 | Updated: 17:01 EST, 1 February 2017

Barry Gibb has refused to discuss how he met his wife Linda, pictured on their wedding day in 1970, on Piers Morgan's Life Stories

He has enjoyed one of the longest marriages in showbusiness.

But Barry Gibb refused to discuss how he met his wife of 46 years in a new TV interview – because they were introduced by Jimmy Savile.

The Bee Gees singer, 70, was left red-faced after he was asked the story behind his 50-year relationship with Scottish former beauty queen Linda Gray during filming for Piers Morgan’s Life Stories.

Gibb, whose interview with Morgan airs on ITV tomorrow, had an awkward exchange with the TV presenter as he recalled the first time he met Linda, then 17, at a recording of Top of the Pops in 1967.

‘She was Miss Edinburgh. But there is a whole slew of stories behind all that. Some of them cannot be told,’ he said.

Pushed for details, he added: ‘No, no because even the name would send a shudder through you.’

Gibb then told Morgan the teenage beauty queen was ‘brought to London’ from Scotland by the person who introduced them, but was warned not to name Savile by his wife who shook her head and shouted ‘no’ from the audience.

The singer added: ‘It does not bear [thinking about] but that’s how we met. It is 50 years this year to the day that we did our first Top of the Pops and that was the day I met my wife.

‘When we first saw each other I thought it was love at first sight. I thought then, “That is the woman I am going to spend the rest of my life with.” It did not matter about showbusiness.’

Savile, who died in 2011 aged 84 before his sex crimes against hundreds of women and children were exposed, hosted Top of the Pops for 20 years from its inception in 1964.

The Bee Gees singer, 70, was left red-faced after he was asked the story behind his relationship with Scottish former beauty queen Linda Gray - because they were introduced by Jimmy Savile

Maurice Gibb (left), Peter Frampton (centre), Barry Gibb and Robin Gibb, in the film Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, made 11 years after the famous Beatles album

He was found to have abused at least 19 young people during recordings of Top of the Pops by an inquiry into his crimes by judge Dame Janet Smith.

In 1991, the disgraced star was filmed smiling and waving among audience members at an episode of This Is Your Life featuring the Bee Gees, when presenter Michael Aspel recalled ‘a young Jimmy Savile’ had introduced Gibb to his wife.

Gibb was married to first wife Maureen, who he met as a teenager growing up in Australia, when he first met Linda in 1967.

According to Gibb, his relationship with Maureen was already falling apart when he met Linda and the couple divorced in 1970. He then married Linda the same year.

Gibb and girlfriend Linda in 1969 before they were married and pictured last year at a Sony Music UK party at Sexy Fish in Mayfair, London

Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb and Maurice Gibb promoting the Staying Alive soundtrack in 1983

They have five children together, sons Steve, 43, Ashley, 39, Travis, 36, Michael, 32, and daughter Alexandra, 25. 

Gibb, who sold more than 220million records with his brothers in the Bee Gees, also revealed that his 50-year career had left him requiring hearing aids.

Unlike most who enjoy a long music career, Gibb, pictured with Linda in 2007, has also enjoyed a long marriage

He said: ‘My hearing is not like it was, I wear a hearing aid all the time now. I blasted my ears out over time.

‘Most musicians of my era have suffered hearing problems due to the technology, wearing in-ear monitors.

‘Over the years, it will cause you a lot of damage because it’s very close to your eardrum. But it’s fantastic, it sounds like you’re on a record.’

During the interview, shown at 9pm tomorrow on ITV, Gibb spoke movingly about the death of his three brothers.

His youngest brother Andy, who had a successful solo career in the Seventies, died aged 30 in 1988 of a heart condition exacerbated by years of cocaine abuse.

In 2003, fellow Bee Gee Maurice died suddenly at the age of 53 after suffering a twisted intestine, followed by Robin, 62, who died in 2014 after a battle with cancer.

 

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