80s music legend Gary Numan has revealed a heartbreaking truth on why he cannot imagine himself as a widower after seeing his wife, Gemma O’Neil, navigate serious health challenges. The 68-year-old, who rose to fame as frontman of Tubeway Army before launching a hugely successful solo career, met Gemma in 1992 after they’d been introduced by her father.
The couple married in 1997 and renewed their vows in 2022. Earlier this year, Gemma was left paralysed in her left arm after an operation on her spine to treat a herniated disc. Luckily, through physiotherapy, she managed to regain some movement in her lower arm and biceps. But she has other health problems, and Gary is worried for her.
Speaking to Daily Telegraph, Gary said Gemma also has a hole in the heart, after suffering a transient ischaemic attack, Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) that caused her heart to suddenly beat much faster than normal, pneumonia, and nutcracker syndrome. She also has a difficult time going through menopause, but she managed to recover.
Asked if how would life be without Gemma, Gary answered: “More than how would I cope, is, would I care to be here at all if she wasn’t? No. [But] I wouldn’t end it if she died, because of the children, and I hope she wouldn’t. One of us is going to go first. And being selfish, I hope it’s me. I don’t want to be without her, but I’m really massively healthy, and she’s not.”
Gary also faced health struggles as he shared on I’m ADHD! No You’re Not podcast with Paul Whitehouse and Dr Mine Conkbayir that he is now 90 per cent deaf. He also shared his way of living with Asperger’s syndrome. He said: “This is when I was about seven or eight, so I used to do this [tapping fingers]. And then it was a problem that once I started it, I had to finish it.
“I’ve learned not to do that now. That took me years to start it and stop it. I also touch my lips in certain places. I still do it now if I’m driving along, if there’s telegraph poles, I automatically count how many times my car would fit between each telegraph pole.
“I said to my kids the other day, I said ‘I think I’ve grown out of it’. And they all just laughed at me.”
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