“I’d hear, ‘Oh you and Sam look so much alike, you’ll have to play one day’ but it never worked out like that. I would catch up with them, but their kids were rarely on tour. “I’d see my uncles every time they’d come out on a tour. When my uncles Maurice and Robin passed away, the press came knocking on both occasions, but, until now, I haven’t been ready.” “I’ve always politely declined any media requests. I met an ex’s mother once, and the first thing she launched into was, ‘Tell me about your father, what are your uncles like?’”Īs for the press attention, it has ebbed and flowed as Peta has gone through life but, until now, she’s mostly avoided it. “It’s nothing to do with my work or who I am as a person. While she doesn’t actively deny it, she becomes uncomfortable with people talking about it. Peta still struggles with people knowing that part of her life. It was torture, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone and it’s followed me throughout my whole life.”
“Everyone was distraught for the longest time.”Īnd for Peta, the new-found attention brought back the bullying. “I was told, ‘Keep your head down, and if anyone calls out your name, look down.’ We were being papped, and it was quite frightening, The press were camped outside the carnival, and they were brutal in their chase as a very young Peta made her way through the airport. But they already knew, it was everywhere in the press already.” We were flying out to London straight afterwards, so I remember telling my friends that I probably wouldn’t be at school. “I can’t remember who took me now, but they made sure I got there. Peta and her mum pictured at the swimming carnival the day after Andy Gibb died. Peta’s Australian family had tried her whole life to make sure things were as “normal” as possible for her, so Peta still managed to swim at her carnival. The cause of death was determined to be myocarditis, a heart condition. On March 10, 1988, he died at a hospital in Oxford, England, at the age of 30. My father had died, and everyone was freaking out.” she explains.Īndy Gibb had struggled with drug addiction throughout his career, finally seeking help in the mid-eighties at the Betty Ford Clinic. There was no sleep in the house that night. “Mum, my grandparents, the phone … everything was going nuts. I was in bed the night before the carnival when all hell broke loose,” She explains. “I’d qualified for the district swimming carnival and I was really excited about competing. Peta had not long turned 10 when there was a huge ruckus at her house. “THEN HE DIED AND MY WHOLE LIFE WAS THROWN INTO A SPIN” Andy Gibb (left) with Olivia Newton John and Daryl Braithwaite in 1977.
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