Key Points
Gary Numan opened up about how his wife of nearly 30 years was originally a fan.
The two first met when she was 12 and he was 22, but got to know each other better after she turned 18.
How they went from friends to spouses “I think is illegal now,” the “Cars” singer said.
Gary Numan is sharing his unconventional love story with his wife of nearly 30 years.
The “Cars” singer first met Gemma O’Neill at a fan event around 1980 when he was 22 — and she was only 12. Six years later, they crossed paths again and he posed for a photo with the 18-year-old. He didn’t know her name then, but that changed by 1988 when he signed an autograph and already knew to make it out to “Gemma.”
As she continued to attend his concerts, Numan and O’Neill got to know each other on an even deeper level.
“That’s how I attracted her, which I think is illegal now,” he told The Times on Wednesday.
Gary Numan in the 1980s
Credit: Fin Costello/Redferns
Recalling how things went from platonic to romantic, Numan said he had learned about the death of O’Neill’s mother, he contacted a fanclub she belonged to seeking her phone number to extend his condolences, “which, again, may be illegal,” he acknowledged. When the rockstar made the call to O’Neill, “she put the phone down — she thought it was somebody playing a cruel trick.”
Numan called back and ultimately convinced O’Neill it was really him after he aced a quiz about himself.
For their first date, Numan brought O’Neill along for a radio interview in Northern England and then for a bite at a roadside chain restaurant.
“I took her to a Little Chef because I’m very down to earth,” he said. “I don’t do all that flash, rich-man, pop-star stuff.”
O’Neill described the date as “really cute” in an interview with The Independent in 1997, the year she and Numan got married after nearly a decade together.
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It was the realization of a dream she’d had ever since she was a young fan of the singer. Numan revealed to The Times that O’Neill once told a career counselor: “I’m going to marry Gary Numan.
Three decades later, they’re still going strong and even have a little fanclub of their own, their daughters Raven, 23, Persia, 21, and Echo, 19.
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