{"id":2475731,"date":"2026-06-25T19:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T19:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2475731"},"modified":"2026-06-25T19:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T19:52:11","slug":"gary-numan-says-the-unusual-way-he-met-his-wife-might-be-illegal-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/gary-numan-says-the-unusual-way-he-met-his-wife-might-be-illegal-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Gary Numan Says the Unusual Way He Met His Wife \u201cMight Be Illegal Now\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Gary Numan is looking back at the unusual way he reconnected with the woman who later became his wife.<\/p>\n

The \u201cCars\u201d singer, 68, told The Times<\/a> that Gemma O\u2019Neill first came into his orbit as a young fan, years before their relationship became romantic.<\/p>\n

People<\/a> reported that Numan first met O\u2019Neill at a fan event around 1980, when he was 22 and she was 12. He did not remember that first interaction, but O\u2019Neill later recalled being overwhelmed and telling him she loved him.<\/p>\n

The two crossed paths again over the years. By the time Numan contacted her directly in the early 1990s, O\u2019Neill was an adult, and he had noticed she had stopped coming to his shows.<\/p>\n

Numan First Knew O\u2019Neill as a Fan<\/h2>\n

People reported that Numan and O\u2019Neill crossed paths again about six years after that first fan-event meeting, when he posed for a photo with her. By 1988, after she continued attending concerts and fan events, he knew her well enough to sign an autograph directly to \u201cGemma.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill had been a devoted fan long before they became a couple. Entertainment Weekly<\/a> reported that she once told a career counselor she would not need a job because she planned to marry Gary Numan.<\/p>\n

\"Gary<\/span><\/div>\n

Image Credit: Kathy Hutchins \/ Shutterstock.<\/p>\n

He Used the Fan Club to Get Her Number<\/h2>\n

Numan told The Times that he noticed O\u2019Neill had stopped attending his concerts after her mother died. He then used the fan club to get her phone number so he could call and offer condolences.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used the fan club to get her phone number,\u201d he said, according to Entertainment Weekly. \u201cThat\u2019s how I attracted her, which I think is illegal now.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill did not believe it was really him at first. Numan said she hung up because she thought someone was playing a cruel trick, and when he called back, she made him prove his identity by answering questions about his own life.<\/p>\n

Their First Date Was a Drive and a Little Chef Stop<\/h2>\n

After the call, Numan asked O\u2019Neill to join him on a drive to a radio interview in northern England. He also took her to Little Chef, the British roadside restaurant chain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took her to a Little Chef because I\u2019m very down to earth,\u201d Numan told The Times, according to People. \u201cI don\u2019t do all that flash, rich man, pop star stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill later described the date as \u201creally cute.\u201d People reported that the pair did not begin seriously dating until about a year later.<\/p>\n

They Married in 1997<\/h2>\n

Numan and O\u2019Neill married in 1997 after nearly a decade together. They share three daughters: Raven, 23, Persia, 21, and Echo, 19.<\/p>\n

Their family has also become part of Numan\u2019s music. Entertainment Weekly noted that Persia has appeared on his work, including the 2017 song \u201cMy Name Is Ruin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Numan told The Times that O\u2019Neill remains central to his life after decades together. \u201cI miss her even when she\u2019s in a different part of the house,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gary Numan is looking back at the unusual way he reconnected with the woman who later became his wife. The \u201cCars\u201d singer, 68, told The Times that Gemma O\u2019Neill first came into his orbit as a young fan, years before their relationship became romantic. People reported that Numan first met O\u2019Neill at a fan event […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2475732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[415318,449091,487213],"class_list":["post-2475731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-gary-numan","tag-gemma-oneill","tag-oneill"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Gary-Numan-Says-the-Unusual-Way-He-Met-His-Wife.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2475731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2475731"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2475731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2475733,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2475731\/revisions\/2475733"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2475732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2475731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2475731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2475731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}