How U2’s Bono Discovered His Cousin Was Actually His Brother

U2 frontman Bono’s family situation is more complicated than previously thought. In a new interview, the singer said he has a half-brother he once thought was his cousin. Bono, born Paul Hewson, only learned of his real relationship with his cousin after his father was diagnosed with cancer in 2000.

Bono’s father, Bob Hewson, had an affair with his aunt Barbara, the sister of his mother, Iris. Barbara gave birth to Scott Rankin, whom Bono grew up believing was his cousin. After Hewson was diagnosed with cancer in 2000, Bob told Bono that Rankin was really his half-brother. Hewson died in 2001.

Bono’s mother, who died suddenly when Bono was 14, was unaware of the affair. Bono also has an older brother, Norman Hewson. Rankin is a former stockbroker analyst now working as a government official.

“The truth is with Scott we felt like brothers long before we knew we were,” Bono told The Irish Times. “I love Scott and his mother Barbara. 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.”

Bono first mentioned learning Rankin was his half-brother during his episode of BBC Radio’s Desert Island Discs in June. However, he did not reveal who Rankin’s mother was, only saying Hewson had a “deep relationship” with the woman. “It’s a very close family and I could tell that my father had a deep friendship with this gorgeous woman who is part of the family and then they had a child and this was all kept a secret,” he said at the time.

Bono had a difficult relationship with his father and told the Irish Times that he “longed” for Hewson’s attention. It was not always “combative” though, as they connected through a love of music. “Music was the thing that soothed his aching heart,” the singer said of his late father. “It sounds like a line from a country song. But it’s actually opera I am talking about. That is why he was attracted to the opera because he was one, and I suppose he had the voice and this is how he gave it to me. It is never the route you expect.”

Bono is busy promoting his memoir, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, which will be released on Nov. 1. The book does not include photos of Bono with many other celebrities because he did not want it to become a “celebrity memoir,” he told the Irish Times. “I would rather be famous and not be a celebrity if that were possible,” he added. “In some geographies that is easier than others.”