Kim Wilde: Touring with Michael Jackson made me want to quit music

Born in 1960, the daughter of Sixties singer-songwriter Marty Wilde, Kim Wilde found instant global superstardom in 1981 with her debut single “Kids in America”. Twenty-five top 50 UK singles, including “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” and “Cambodia”, followed and she became the most charted female singer of the 80s. After a hiatus to have children Harry, now 26, and Rose, 24, with her ex-husband actor Hal Fowler, she successfully turned her hand to horticulture, presenting several gardening TV shows and winning a Gold Award at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2005. She now tours her back catalogue.

Here she looks back on the moments that changed her perspective on work, love, family, money and health.

Music came more naturally to me than being a mother – and I’m not proud to admit that. It was the same for my father, he’s still touring and releasing albums at 87 – music was always the top priority. If I could have my time again, I’d do it completely differently. I don’t think I really appreciated how amazing it is to be a parent.

I don’t remember tangibly thinking: “I’m going to be a pop star when I grow up.” But I just had this knowing. I sensed that my destiny was going to start with music in a really fabulous way. I do feel very perceptive about things. It’s a little bit witchy. Obviously, fame was just part of my culture and family, too.

Because I grew up with a famous dad, I had a handle on fame. I was just grateful to have a job and independence. I was a 20-year-old living at home when “Kids in America was released in 1981, and it was a key to travelling the world, singing and immersing my life in music. Some young people can find fame suffocating, but I loved being spoilt rotten. I had champagne waiting for me in my bedroom anywhere I turned up.

When I was living in London in the 80s, I saw a man trying to climb up the drainpipe of my house. I could see the top of his head, and he was trying to get have a look in the window. I remember crouching down on the floor and phoning up the police, but I don’t think much came of it. By the time they got there, he’d scarpered.

I have had people sleeping outside my house, too. People have ended up sleeping in my neighbour’s shed because they got the wrong garden. Then, just after I’d got married, before I had a gate, a couple of Russians walked round to the back of the kitchen, and knocked on the door. “Where is Kim Wilde? I want to marry her.” My then-husband walked out and said: “You missed the boat mate. I married her six months ago.”

I never saw myself as a sex symbol. I’ve always had the same attitude and that’s just to have fun with it. I knew I could strike a pose and put on some lipstick and rock that. I didn’t always pull it off, but I saw it as a fun mask, like dressing-up for grown-ups.

Touring with Michael Jackson in 1988 made me realise how frightening extreme fame is. It forces you to live inside, in a gilded cage. I saw how isolated he had become, so I felt very grateful I was the support act and still had all the fun. I got to travel, then go home and have a life – get my groceries without a bodyguard. That tour experience was the beginning of me thinking about getting out of the music industry and finding another world.

I went back to college at 36 to study horticulture. By that point I had two kids. Then I got offers to do gardening TV programmes. People called it a reinvention, but I just had all this passion for learning and gardens. I wanted to make a garden for the children to grow up in. When I left music, the only thing I missed about the music industry was having having my make up done.

Giving up alcohol at 55 had a profound impact on my health. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. My physical health and, more importantly, my mental health are very good now. Having no alcohol allows clarity of thought in a way that one wouldn’t have if one was a little bit inebriated or hungover.

My stress valve now is gardening, dog walking and meditation. I meditate all the time. I spend quite a lot of time on my own, and I’m happy about it. I wasn’t always comfortable being alone, but I am now. It’s about being present, which is a lot harder to be than it sounds.

I love scrolling, though – I won’t hear anything bad said about scrolling. I love dog videos. I love cat videos. I love anything to do with the pyramids, ancient civilisations, and the mysteries of the universe. I’m down the wormhole. I just end up laughing hysterically, or staring in wonder at the world we live in. It thrills me and it totally inspires me. I won’t have a bad word said against Instagram.

At 65, I’m into a peaceful version of love, rather than falling head over heels. More of that kind of gentle, being with someone in a mundane kind of way. Being happy to be sat at a table drinking a cup of tea.

I believe in love more now than I’ve ever done. It’s cheesy, but when you get older and you learn to love yourself, then you know that you can love someone else. It starts with you. You have to do the work and feel at peace with yourself.

I look at the mirror every morning and I tell myself how much I love myself. I say, “Kim, I love you.” It’s really easy not to love yourself. It’s easy to give yourself a hard time, to find fault and to ruminate, to go down negative roads in your head.

I’m not inspired by making money. I’m inspired by being creative. I do like money, though. I love going on to Amazon and thinking: “Yeah, I’m gonna get that.” I love the freedom of that as not everybody has it.

Tickets for Kim Wilde’s 2027 singles tour are out now. This year, she performs at festivals including Let’s Rock 80s in Huddersfield on Saturday, and Rewind in Henley-on-Thames on 22 August