It’s the stuff of music legend: After 10 years of marriage, Phil Collins reportedly asked second wife Jill Tavelman for a divorce via fax machine.
Did that really happen? In a new interview with ABC News to promote his memoir Not Dead Yet, Collins finally addressed the rumor about his 1994 split ― or “Faxgate” as he calls it.
“[It] really hurt my career, or my public persona,” the 65-year-old musician said. “And it was based on an untruth... So, I just thought it would be an opportunity just to lay it all out, and if I say it didn’t happen, I’m trusting that people will believe me.”
Collins ― whose daughter with Tavelman, Lily, is now an actress ― went on to marry Orianne Cevey, whom he met on tour in 1994 while she was working as a translator. The couple split in 2008, with Collins shelling out a reported $46.76 million in their divorce settlement, but they’ve since reconciled.
In the new memoir, the former Genesis frontman opens up about his spotty record with marriage.
“I am disappointed that I have been married three times,” he writes, according to E! News. “I’m even more disappointed that I have been divorced three times... I’m a romantic who believes, hopes that the union of marriage is something to cherish and last.”