Scottish singer Lulu, 76, has revealed her long-hidden struggle with alcoholism, admitting she was a “secret drinker”.
The Eurovision star told The Times that the turning point came at her own 65th birthday party, where she confided in her sister about her uncontrolled drinking.
Within 24 hours of a family lunch, she flew to the Meadows rehabilitation centre in Arizona, spending six weeks there and committing to Alcoholics Anonymous, which she continues to attend.
During her time in rehab, she was diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder, stemming from witnessing violent domestic abuse between her parents as a child, she told the newspaper.
Lulu, whose real name is Lulu Kennedy-Cairns, said: “I’ve never spoken about the alcohol before. ‘Lulu’ is sort of squeaky clean.
“I think I always wanted to be Miss Perfect, the ‘best Lulu’, and I was terrified of being like my father.”
She said she became “more and more reliant” on alcohol after going through menopause.
“With both my parents gone, the empty nest, looking around and seeing all the young kids in the music industry … it just got worse.”
The Glaswegian said she spent five years dependent on wine before admitting the problem to her sister.
Even her friends in recovery did not spot the habit, she said, telling the Times: “When I finally told them, they said, ‘How did we miss that?’”
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She added that she never drank before going on stage or around her young grandchildren, now aged 15 and 13, but alcoholism does run in her genes.
Her therapist in Arizona compared her homelife in a Glasgow tenement to a “war zone”, she said.
Her father would regularly hit her mother when he was drunk and her mother would lie that she had tripped on a broom, the Times reported.
“I carried so much shame about my parents, about having got my father taken away (by the police) on one occasion. I never wanted to be like my father,” she said.
At the age of 15, she moved to London and scored her first hit – a cover of the Isley Brothers’ “Shout”.
From the beginning of her career in 1964, Lulu has achieved 10 UK top 10 singles and a UK top 10 album.
She is also known for “I’m A Tiger” and “Boom Bang-A-Bang”, which was a joint Eurovision winner in 1969 with the Spanish, Dutch and French entries, who all tied on 18 points.
She performed at Glastonbury this summer and in 2024.
She told the Times: “‘Lulu’ would help me feel light and cheerful when really I was a bit of a tortured soul because of my character.
“For years, I made a choice not to talk about (my alcoholism) publicly.”
Her interview came ahead of the release of her memoir, If Only You Knew, on 25 September.
