Lulu Kennedy-Cairns revealed she became an alcoholic in her 60s, describing herself as a "secret drinker". Photo / Getty Images
Lulu Kennedy-Cairns revealed she became an alcoholic in her 60s, describing herself as a "secret drinker". Photo / Getty Images
Lulu has revealed that she became an alcoholic in her 60s, saying “I was a secret drinker”.
The Scottish singer and actress avoided the pitfalls of the hedonistic 1960s when she shot to fame, but developed a drinking problem in later life.
Now 76, Lulu Kennedy-Cairns has said that shebecame increasingly dependent on wine when she became menopausal, had lost her parents, and her children had left home.
The singer, whose father was an alcoholic, only accepted the extent of this dependence in 2013, on her 65th birthday.
Speaking to the Times, she said: “I’ve never spoken about the alcohol before. ‘Lulu’ is sort of squeaky clean. It’s not that I’m a bad girl. I’m not.
“But I’m tough on myself. I think I always wanted to be Miss Perfect, the ‘best Lulu’, and I was terrified of being like my father.”
The Eurovision winner said that alcohol was a “family illness” and that “the gene is there”, although nobody noticed the degree to which wine had become part of her life.
She became dependent on wine during menopause, after losing her parents and her children leaving home. Photo / Getty Images
Lulu said that even close friends, who were themselves recovering from alcoholism, did not realise that she was struggling with alcohol.
By the time she made her dependence known in 2013, she said: “For many years, and I can’t say how many, I had not been happy with the way I felt, not at all happy and [yet] unable to ask for help.”
She entered rehab and has since enjoyed life in recovery, saying: “I probably have never been happier in my life, and at the same time, never been more in touch with my feelings.”
Lula witnessed the ill-effects of alcohol in her youth, when she saw her father abuse her mother in a household she has characterised as a “war zone”.
Speaking to the Telegraph in 2002, to mark her autobiography, I Don’t Want to Fight, she described how her father kept the family afloat by supplying stolen meat to local butchers.
Six decades later, she has come to understand the “damaged” nature of her parents thanks to her own experience with alcohol.
She said: “The thing about drink is that you become the worst part of who you really are.
“You can be happy and singing and having fun but that doesn’t last. If you keep drinking, you can become morose. We can become angry. I worked so hard to understand this.”
Lulu, born Marie Lawrie, became a star when her cover version of The Isley Brothers song Shout reached the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart in 1964.
In 1967, she rose to international prominence after appearing in the film To Sir, with Love, singing the theme song, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the US for five consecutive weeks and became America’s biggest-selling single that year.
Her song Boom Bang-a-Bang won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1969 and she is noted for her powerful voice with the title song for the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun in 1974.
Her autobiography, If Only You Knew, details her journey from Glasgow to global fame and offers a frank account of her experiences in the music industry.
Last year, before singing at Glastonbury she described to the Telegraph the highs and lows of being at the centre of showbiz for 60 years.
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor’s Picks, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week’s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here.
