Roman Kemp reveals mum Shirlie ‘cried for days’ during his childhood as he opens up on pitfalls of fame
He reflected on the ‘horrendous’ experience on his podcast
Aheartbroken Roman Kemp has revealed he ‘spent his childhood watching his mum Shirlie cry’ as he opened up about growing up in the public eye.
Roman is the youngest son of singers Shirlie and husband Martin. The showbiz couple – who married in 1998 – are also parents to singer-songwriter Harley-Moon. Both appear in the new series of Celebrity Race Across The World, which starts tonight (November 6).
However, growing up with mega-famous parents was not easy for Roman.
Martin and Shirlie share two children – Roman and Harley-Moon (Credit: SplashNews.com)
Roman Kemp on Martin and Shirlie’s financial struggles
During a recent episode of his You About? podcast, Roman recalled a period when finances were tight for the family.
At the time, Martin had money struggles due to his health issues. In 1995, Martin was diagnosed with two brain tumours which he referred to as a “ticking time bomb”. As a result, he had to undergo surgery to get them removed.
However, the ordeal had left the Spandau Ballet performer unable to walk and without sight in one eye. Due to its location, the second tumour was more difficult to remove. But thanks to his wife Shirlie’s research, Martin was successfully treated by a surgeon in London two years later.
Talking about the difficult time, Roman shared: “My parents had no money at the time because my dad had all these operations and [bleep] for his brain. So, like, they were trying to get more money.”
Roman then revealed that his parents were anxious about the family being snapped by paparazzi while on holiday.
“But then, even up to when I was maybe 13, if we’d gone on holiday, we were never allowed to go to the beach because when we went on the beach, my mum and dad would always be like: ‘There it is.’
“And you’d see a boat come past, quite far out. And then, like, stop, and there would just be a long lens camera just taking pictures of kids on beaches,” he said.
Roman opened up about growing up with a famous mum and dad (Credit: ITV / Loose Women/ Youtube)
Shirlie ‘cried for days’
However, Roman went on to share that mum Shirlie would often be left crying after seeing the paparazzi pictures of them in the papers. He said: “It’s mad in that sense, you see it less and less now. Like those old celebrity pictures on the beach, you see that a lot less now.
“But at the time, my whole life, me growing up, was my mum crying because they’re taking horrendous pictures and they’d only use the worst picture.”
Roman then said following one holiday, Shirlie “cried for, like, five days” when photos of her and the family on a banana boat were published.
