U2 star Bono admits one of his cousins is actually his half-brother
Bono has revealed that his cousin was actually his half-brother.
The U2 singer's father, Bob Hewson, told his son the family news back in 2000, a year before he died of cancer, though many others didn't learn the truth until later on.
Hewson revealed to his son that Scott Rankin, the man Bono thought was his cousin, is actually his half-brother who had been conceived from an affair with Hewson and Bono's aunt.
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Luckily for the music maestro there wasn't much adaptation needed as he said they 'felt like brothers long before we knew we were'.
The U2 frontman made the revelation that his cousin was his half-brother on the BBC's Desert Island Discs show, explaining that his father had a relationship with a 'gorgeous woman'.
He said: "My father was going through a lot. His head was elsewhere because his heart was elsewhere.
"It’s a very close family and I could tell my father had a deep friendship with this gorgeous woman who was part of the family, and then they had a child and this was all kept secret."
It was later revealed that the mystery woman was Bono's aunt, his father's sister-in-law, with the singer telling the Irish Times he thinks he picked up on the signs even before he knew what was happening.
He said: "I must have known that something was up, and I must have held my father responsible for kind of making my mother unhappy in the way kids just pick up things."
He also said he was sure that his late mother Iris never found out about the affair.
Bono has also made a big apology in his new memoir, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, over that time Apple put U2's new album onto everyone's iPhones without asking.
He admitted it was supposed to be a gift but ended up as the equivalent of 'Rock n Roll dystopian junkmail'.
The U2 singer explained that it all happened when he was meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook and suggested giving away their latest album to iPhone users free of charge.
Describing the move as akin to being 'Santa Claus and we'd knocked a few bricks out as we went down the chimney', he said he only realised people would have privacy concerns about things being uploaded onto their phone without their permission after they'd done it.
He's even admitted that some of his old work embarrasses him a bit and even the name U2 isn't something he really likes.
Then again, he's one of the most successful performers ever and has picked up a shedload of awards for his work so a couple of embarrassing old songs isn't much to worry about.
Joe Harker