Father of eight Roger Daltrey has opened up about his children in a new article with the Mirror, specifically, three of them whom he didn’t know existed until after his 50th birthday.
It all started when the Who singer received an image of a woman who clearly resembled him. He knew instantly she had to be his daughter. A few years later, two other women came forward, showing his name as their father on their adoption paperwork.
Daltrey wound up siring these three daughters in the 1960s after his first marriage ended and before he met his second wife. He was overjoyed to learn about the existence of the three “surprise kids,” according to the Mirror.
“They all came into my life after my 50th birthday,” he said. “It was great – it’s all worked out. They stay in touch and they’re close, so that’s great. I’ve tried to do my best about a situation that couldn’t change because it happened a long time ago.”
Daltrey has a total of eight children. The other five are: Simon, 55, from his first marriage to Jackie Rickman; Mathias, 50, with Swedish model Elisabeth Aronsson; and Rosie, 46, Willow, 43, and Jamie, 37, from his second marriage to American model Heather Taylor.
Taylor, who you may know as the inspiration behind Jim Hendrix’s Foxy Lady, put up with Daltrey’s philandering ways while he toured with his band. And the rocker appreciates her willingness to stand by his side despite his indiscretions.
“Heather is amazing. To find a woman who understood what this business was like, who I was and who we were, and to accept that and still want to be with me when I came home was a gift from the universe,” he explained.
“Whether that’s an open marriage or just a matter of being honest with her because I was never going to be the perfect husband in that sense. So, when I come back off tours, we don’t talk about it. She accepted that. And you can criticize it, you can say whatever. But all I can say is, whatever we did it worked because we’ve been together for 50 years and I’m starting to like it.”
Daltrey left his first wife to pursue his music career and because he thought it would help his family. “In my head, what was going on was, ‘If I can make this work, I can look after everyone in my family – Jackie, Simon my son, Mum, Dad, everyone. I can give them all a better life,” he noted.
“And that’s what happened. But to do what I had to do was very, very hard. And I had to be a shit to do it. I’m very close to Simon now. Jackie married again and had two other kids. The whole tribe of us used to go on holiday together. So yes, I made mistakes. Yes, I was an arsehole. But I learned from it. And I became the person I am today, which is a totally different character than it was all those years ago.”
Daltrey also has 10 grandchildren.
