Gary Numan may have bent a few laws in the name of love.
The “Cars” singer, 68, revealed the unexpected way his wife of almost 30 years, Gemma O’Neill, became more than just a fan of his in a new interview with The Times published on Wednesday, June 24.
Numan revealed that O’Neill, 58, had always been a huge fan of his, having once told a career counselor that she wouldn’t need a job, because she was going “to marry Gary Numan.”
It took a little bit for her to gain his attention, however. Their first meeting was during a fan event when she was 12, and he was 22, but Numan doesn’t recall the interaction. Six years later, the pair posed for a photo together, and as O’Neill continued to attend Numan’s shows regularly, he began to remember her as a friendly face in the crowd. By 1988, Numan even knew in advance to make out her autographs to “Gemma.”
“That’s how I attracted her, which I think is illegal now,” he told The Times.
Later, when Numan learned that O’Neill’s mother had died, he reached out to the fan club with which he knew she was associated to get her phone number. “Which again may be illegal,” he acknowledged.
When Numan first rang O’Neill to express his condolences, she hung up the phone, convinced that someone was “playing a cruel trick,” but when he called back and was able to pass a quiz confirming his identity, she realized who had actually reached out to her.
The “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?” singer went on to ask O’Neill on a date and invited her to join him on a drive to an interview. “I took her to a Little Chef because I’m very down to earth,” he recalled of that first date. “I don’t do all that flash, rich man, pop star stuff.”
The couple would go on to tie the knot in 1997 and later welcomed daughters Raven, 23, Persia, 21, and Echo, 19.
In 1997, O’Neill shared her recollection of her first date with Numan in an interview with The Independent, describing the outing as “really cute.”
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