Barrymore split was my September 11, says ex wife
The former wife of TV personality Michael Barrymore today described her split from the troubled star as ‘‘my September 11’’.
Cheryl Barrymore split from the comic soon after he announced he was gay in 1995 and was divorced two years later.
The 50-year-old told the Mail on Sunday that the My Kind of Music star never told her or talked to her about his homosexuality and she only heard the revelation on national radio.
‘‘It was my September 11,’’ she told the newspaper’s Night & Day magazine. ‘‘He didn’t come home for days after that dramatic confession, and that was the beginning of the end.
‘‘My world changed forever that day. Many people have said to me that I must have had my suspicions, that I couldn’t be married to a man for all those years and not know he was gay.’’
She added: ‘‘It was a complete shock. Until that week, we still had a normal married life.’’
Five years on from the split, Cheryl insists she does not feel sorry for herself but has moved on, in part due to support from friends including former Pop Idol judge Simon Cowell.
Her latest project, with business partner Jay Maggistro, is to open an upmarket club called No 5 in London’s Cavendish Square this autumn.
