Gary Numan believes the way he and his wife-turned-fan Gemma O’Neill are dating “may now be illegal”.
The “Cars” singer explained to the Times in an interview published Wednesday that she met her current partner at a fan event around 1980, when she was 12 and he 22.
He claimed that O’Neal and the 28-year-old rock star were 18 when they met again, and that they became acquainted as she continued to attend his concerts.
“That’s how I attracted her, and I think it’s illegal now,” he joked, noting that in 1992 he contacted O’Neal’s fan club to get her phone number.
The artist had wanted to express his condolences to Ms O’Neill after his mother’s death, but told the publication: “This may also be illegal.”
Numan confessed that when he called a young fan, he “hanged up” because “I thought someone was playing a cruel prank on me.”
When Numan called back, O’Neill asked him a question asking if he was real.
The two then had their first date at a chain restaurant, and Numan recalls, “I’m very down-to-earth, so I took her to Little Chef. I’m not all flashy, rich, pop-star stuff.”
He and O’Neal married in 1997 and welcomed daughters Raven (23), Persia (21) and Echo (19).
A few years before her marriage, O’Neal had told a career counselor that she was going to marry Gary Numan.
In 1997, she told The Independent about how their age-gap romance came about.
“I was 11 years old and it started as a high school crush, a big crush,” she said at the time, adding that she met Numan as a preteen.
“My dad worked at Warner Bros., which had the Beggar’s Banquet label, and he arranged for me to meet Gary and get the single signed,” O’Neill explained.
“I was completely devastated and couldn’t even speak. I cried and told him I really loved him,” she said.
O’Neil described their first date as “really cute”, adding that “a college crush quickly turned into real feelings”.
“Still, I stayed grounded. I remember thinking, ‘This is really, really great, he’s really, really friendly and nice, but if it stops tomorrow, I’ll be fine.'”
