May 27, 2024
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In a new interview with Big Issue, IRON MAIDEN's Bruce Dickinson said that he doesn't know whether he is qualified to advise his younger self about love. "Because I've just got married for the third time," he said. "All I can do is just talk about my relationship right now because it's the calmest I've ever had. And it's great. We have fun, we laugh, but we're not manic. We can be in the same room and not feel the need to go, 'Are you all right?' We are happy just breathing the same air. And getting married hasn't changed that."
Last December, Dickinson confirmed during an appearance on the Swedish talk show "Carina Bergfeldt" that he married French fitness instructor Leana Dolci. "I got married three weeks ago," he said. "We got married in Paris. We were planning to do it, and then I said, 'Well, let's get married in France.'"
He continued: "Honestly, I thought the English invented bureaucracy, but the French have perfected it. And all my French buddies go, 'Yes, you're absolutely right.' So we went along, and we have to go there and basically sort of like give all our details. So you can't just pick a date. And you also can't just get married anywhere. You have to get married where you live. You're not allowed to get married anywhere else — legally married. Leana's got an apartment there in Paris. So we got married 400 meters down the road, at the town hall, 'cause that was the only place we could legally be married, 'cause she lived there. But to get married there, I had to prove I was English, and blah, blah, blah, and I had to get permission from the British government to marry a French citizen, and they had to publish the banns of marriage in London, and everything, and then I had to provide my waist measurement, and the inside leg, and all this other stuff, and where I lived, and everything else, and who was my witness, and his passport. And the woman said, 'This is your witness?' I went, 'Yeah, yeah, that's his passport. That's Kevin.' She goes, 'This photocopy is the wrong size.' [Laughs]"
Asked by talk show host Carina Bergfeldt what "the coolest thing" about his wedding to Leana was, Bruce said: "The coolest thing about my wedding is that my sons showed up with their wife and girlfriend, respectively. Leana's parents turned up — not her grandmother. Her grandmother was 103, so she stayed home. And her parents showed up and her dad burst into tears. I thought, 'I'm gonna get married 'cause I love her and she's great and she makes me really happy and we make each other really happy and I wanna support her, but I also wanna give her the confidence.' And it's another way of going to the outside — it says to the outside world, 'Sorry, no. Not available. Taken. Done.'"
Regarding how he proposed to Leana, Bruce said: "I think we might even have been sitting in a restaurant or something and out of nowhere, I said, 'We should get married.' And she was, like, 'Really?' I went, 'Yes.' And she went, 'Okay.' And that was it."
Bruce and Leana split their time between Paris and his home in London.
The 65-year-old singer revealed his engagement to Dolci in March 2023 while speaking to Bosnia And Herzegovina's N1 TV channel.
Bruce's second wife, Patrice "Paddy" Bowden was found dead in May 2020 at the home they once shared in Chiswick, West London, following a "tragic accident." London Ambulance Service confirmed that the patient was pronounced dead on arrival.
Bruce and Paddy had married in 1990 after two years of dating and shared three children: Austin, Griffin, and Kia. They tied the knot following Bruce's split from first wife Erica "Jane" Barnett.
At the time of Paddy's death, Bruce said in a statement: "This is a terrible tragedy which appears to be a tragic accident.
"Our children Austin, Griffin and Kia and I are devastated. Out of respect for Paddy we won't be making any further comment at this hugely difficult and painful time for our family."
Dickinson is believed to have split from Bowden privately in 2018, although their breakup wasn't made public until November 2019.
Ten years ago, Dickinson was diagnosed with stage 3 throat cancer after doctors discovered a golf ball-size tumor on his tongue and another in the lymph node on the right side of his neck.
The singer got the all-clear in May 2015 after radiation and nine weeks of chemotherapy and later covered his cancer battle in his 2017 autobiography, "What Does This Button Do?"
Photo credit: John McMurtrie
