British music icon, 76, reveals alcohol addiction for first time after years of ‘shame’

Lulu is speaking about her battles with alcohol for the first time (Picture: Joseph Okpako/WireImage)

Music icon Lulu has opened up about her alcohol addiction for the first time and the childhood trauma behind it.

The 76-year-old Eurovision star is best known for her 1964 single Shout, which launched a career that has spanned over six decades, as well as the tune Relight My Fire.

Behind the scenes, however, Lulu spent years facing ‘dark’ moments and battling ‘shame’, which ultimately led to a stint in rehab.

In a new interview, she speaks about her drinking and the fears she had of tarnishing her ‘squeaky clean’ public image by admitting to it, having previously revealed her father’s own alcoholism.

‘I think I always wanted to be Miss Perfect, the “best Lulu”, and I was terrified of being like my father,’ she confessed to The Times.

The singer went on: ‘For years, I made a choice not to talk about [my alcoholism] publicly. I chose to wait until I had the language to understand it before I could start spouting off.

‘I’ve learnt a lot from other people, their memoirs, and self-help books too, so maybe I can be of some help now.’

Lulu then detailed some scarring moments from her upbringing, such as witnessing violent domestic abuse between her father and her mother and the time her dad was ‘dragged away’ by police.

While she feared people perceiving her parents as ‘bad people’, she now says they were ‘damaged’, but she also ‘carried so much shame’ about their actions.

Lulu believes her alcoholism was ‘the culmination of a life spent trying to suppress feelings’, having always supported her family and had a professional image to uphold.

Thankfully, she’s reaping the benefits of recovery, declaring that she’s ‘never been happier in [her] life’.

‘And at the same time, [I have] never been more in touch with my feelings,’ added the star, which helped her to eventually ‘forgive’ her parents for the violence she was privy to.

The Shout hitmaker entered rehab for her addiction (Picture: Gus Stewart/Redferns)

‘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,’ she explained.

‘If you keep drinking, you can become morose. We can become angry. I worked so hard to understand this. I finally understood it’s an illness that messes with everything.

‘So I know it sounds perverse, but I’m glad I’m an alcoholic and that I’m in recovery.’

Lulu, whose mother and father died in 1996 and 1998, respectively, sought professional help after constantly asking herself why she was drinking and why things weren’t ‘getting better’ as she ‘wasn’t happy’.

Acknowledging that she ‘didn’t feel good enough’ for a long time, and feeling scrutinised in the spotlight, she called her son, Jordan Frieda, 48, to tell him she was entering rehab.

These days, Lulu, who has been married twice, firstly to Maurice Gibb from 1969 to 1973, then to John Frieda from 1977 to 1991, is living in a much ‘brighter’ world, residing in central London with her cockapoo.

While she officially retired from touring last year, Lulu was a guest during Sir Rod Stewart’s 2025 Glastonbury set (Picture: Yui Mok/PA Wire)

She’s also determined to persist with her career ‘until [she] drops’.

This comes after she announced last year that she would be formally retiring from touring, a decision she came to in part due to her ‘moderate hearing loss’. Lulu does, however, still sing and perform.

She would go on to join Sir Rod Stewart on the Glastonbury 2025 stage as a surprise guest during his Legends Slot on the Pyramid Stage.

‘I’ve had a lot of tough moments. And alcohol came up and bit me on the nose. But if there is one characteristic I now realise I have, it is resilience,’ states Lulu.

‘I thank God for that every day.’

Since bravely opening up about her alcoholism, Lulu has been inundated with supportive messages from fans online, praising her for ‘helping so many people’.

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