The memoirs of most pop stars play along a formula, describing in lurid detail their sexual exploits and battles with drug dependence. Sir Cliff Richard's autobiography is a little different, if no less illuminating.
The 67-year-old singer has spoken for the start time well-nigh his fill up
relationship with a erstwhile Roman Catholic priest, and calls on the Church of
England to approve same-sex marriages.
Sir Cliff describes how he struck up an intimate friendship with an American
former missioner, Fr John McElynn, after meeting him in New York seven
years ago. The famously clean-cut pop singer reveals that he hired Fr
McElynn to look later his charitable projects and numerous houses, after it
became clear the American would give up the priesthood. The pair now live
in concert.
In the book, Sir Cliff calls the former clergyman his "companion"
and "blessing", going on to say he is "sick to demise" of
media speculation nearly his gender. "Our organization has worked out
in truth well," he writes. "John and I have all over time smitten up a
close friendship. He has also become a associate, which is great because I
don't like surviving alone, even now."
Sir Cliff, a poster boy for the Christian faith, too defends his decision to
remain a bachelor in the record, titled My Life, My Way. "People often
make the fault of thought that just marriage equals happiness," he
writes.
"I may suddenly meet someone and feel otherwise, but right now I am not
sure man and wife would heighten my happiness. As for my gender, I am sick to
death of the media's speculation around it. What business is it of anyone
else's what whatsoever of us are as individuals? I don't think my fans would charge
either way."
He calls on the Church of England to update its views on same-sex marriages,
controversy that all judgements on sexuality should be left to God. "I
think the Church must come round and see the great unwashed as they are now. Gone are
the years when we assumed loving relationships would be exclusively between hands
and women. It seems to me that commitment is the issue, and if anyone comes
to me and says: 'This is my partner; we are attached to each other', then I
don't care what their sexuality is. I'm not expiration to estimate; I'll leave that
to God."
Sir Cliff chose the Lakeside Shopping Centre in Essex to signboard copies of his
volume yesterday. More than 1,000 fans, mostly female, turned up. In the book,
Sir Cliff, wHO has sold more than 250 million records over six decades,
reveals that the only two women he considered marrying were the dancer
Jackie Irving and Sue Barker, the sports presenter. He describes Ms Irving,
with whom he had a relationship in the early sixties, as "absolutely
beautiful", and says for a clock time they were "inseparable". She
married Adam Faith.
Sir Cliff met Sue Barker in 1982. They cursorily formed a close attachment
thanks to their divided up passions for tennis and Christianity. "I
seriously contemplated asking her to splice me," he writes, "simply in
the end I realised that I didn't love her quite enough to entrust the rest of
my life to her. There were no broken hearts."
He also describes the time he was famously seduced by Carol Costa, the
estranged wife of Jet Harris, a member of his funding group, The Shadows. "I
was surprised but not unhappy to be seduced", he writes , but stresses
that "sex is not one of the things that drives me". In 1996, he
flatly denied he was gay. "I'm aware of the rumours, but I'm not gay."
Steve Turner, world Health Organization wrote a biography of Sir Cliff in 1993, said: "Of all
the people I've interviewed, from David Bowie to the Beatles, he's the unrivaled
most people ask me about. With Cliff, there's always that element of
uncertainty and puzzlement, because there's something unresolved about his
paradigm."
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