Bono says he discovered existence of half-brother from late father’s affair

Bono has said he has a half-brother he did not know about until the year 2000.

The U2 frontman opened up about his life and family on the BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, speaking to Lauren Laverne.

In the episode, broadcast today (26 June), Bono says that he had a “complicated” relationship with his late father, who conceived a child in an extramarital affair.

Bono’s father died in 2001. His mother, Iris, died of a brain aneurysm in 1974, when he was 14 years old.

“I have another brother, whom I love and adore, who I didn’t know I had,” he said.

“It’s a very close family,” the singer continued, “and I could tell my father had a deep friendship with this gorgeous woman, who’s part of the family, and then they had a child. And this was all kept secret.”

He added that he is “at peace” after learning of his brother’s existence in 2000. Bono said that before his father’s death, he confronted him on the subject.

“I asked him, did he love my mother, and he said ‘yes’,” the singer recalled. “And I said, ‘how could this happen?’ and he said, ‘It can’, and that he was trying to put it right.

“He wasn’t apologising, he was just stating, these are the facts. And I’m at peace with it.”

Bono also has another brother, Norman.