Sharleen Spiteri talks rock star motherhood, cosmetic surgery and the pressures of growing old
Curled around a steaming mug of chocolate in a north London café, an elfin figure flicks her tousled hair and digs into a big, gooey flapjack, 'Oh, that's better.' This is brunch with the most down to earth celeb you're likely to meet, the 38-year-old lead singer of Texas, Sharleen Spiteri.
Sharleen was at Glasgow School of Art and working as a hairdresser when she met a man in a bar who asked if she could sing. 'I thought it was a chat up line, but I said, 'yeah''.
'He asked if I could write. I thought, 'F**k it, how hard can it be?''
The man turned out to be Johnny McElhone and Texas was born. After 18 years in one of Britain's most successful bands, 'Shar' still comes across as the gobby Glaswegian hairdresser she once was. Sometimes tactile, then withdrawn, always cussing and blinding, there is something of the teenager about Sharleen. But a glance at her CV shows that Ms Spiteri is one very grown up businesswoman.
In 1998 the radio station she owned with Ally McCoist and Carol Smillie sold for £32 million.
Her company paid her £1.6million in 1999, making her the highest paid company director in Scotland.
So how did she become so business savvy? 'I don't know about that,' she says, 'it's just knowing something good when it's there and making an effort,' says Sharleen who credits her father for teaching her the value of money. She bought her first flat at 18, and lived on toast for a year to scrimp to pay the mortgage. Now Sharleen has a mansion in one of London's finer postcodes and a house in Glasgow but takes nothing for granted.
'I'm lucky to be in a position where I make the rules. I can say no, a lot of people can't.'
'They take home a wage packet and put up with a lot of bulls**t.'She marvels at the way that most working mums cope. 'This country doesn't do a lot to help mothers. I've just been to Japan, and there they have a system so that if the mother wants to go back to school, the state looks after her child.'
Sharleen has always had the support of her parents and sister and grew up surrounded by cousins. 'We would all muck in together – there was no mollycoddling.' She started her own family in 2002 with long-term partner, style guru Ashley Heath and gave birth to Misty Kyd.
Spiteri found being a mum, 'the most natural thing in the world,' but it wasn't comfortable with the media attention.
The press wanted a new celebrity mum, but Sharleen felt, 'guarded': 'I couldn't share that private part of myself.' For Texas' next album, 'Careful What You Wish For,' she adopted a hard, aggressive look that alienated many of the trendy mum's who made up her fan base. The album didn't sell and Texas dropped the image. Sharleen began to let down her defences but felt the need for privacy once more in 2005 when she split with Ashley after almost a decade.
She'll talk about anything, from her poo to pop gossip, but her relationship with 'Ash' is strictly off limits. I try another tack: How does she feel about bringing up Misty on her own? 'I'm not on my own,' she says, 'Misty has a Dad. He's very close to her.' She softens to tell me about when Ash dressed up as the Easter bunny to surprise Misty. 'She looked scared, so I said, 'it's okay; it's Daddy,' but she started crying.' When she asked what was wrong, Misty sobbed, 'the rabbit's eaten Daddy!'
There's a playfulness about their relationship that sometimes sounds more matey than maternal.
'Misty came into my room the other night and said, 'let's watch some girly TV and have tea and toast'.'
Sharleen seems to genuinely enjoy her daughter's company. 'We love dressing up,' she says, 'we love pirates.' For her last birthday, Misty demanded a fairy party, 'all pink and sparkly.' Sharleen wasn't happy, 'I said to Misty, 'I don't really do pink, it's not my thing,' but she said, 'you have to mum.' So I found black wings, and black and white striped tights,' says Sharleen with glee at having outfoxed a three year old. Misty takes her mum's career in her stride. 'Misty thinks everyone's mum is in a band,' says Sharleen. She's not far off.
Sharleen's best friend is still the girl she met in a club toilet when she was 15.
But Misty's playmates include the children of other members of Texas and Sharleen is mates with Madonna, as well as rock relations Gwyneth Paltrow and Stella McCartney.
Spiteri is no sycophant and isn't scared to say what she thinks of other celebs ('Liz Hurley is the rudest person I've ever met'). She believes that women should dress their age, 'what is it with Liz Hurley and nighties? Are you home for the evening? Put a coat on.' Nor does she hold much stock with cosmetic surgery>
'I see some scary faces at parties, faces on the sides of people's heads giving it the, 'don't I look fantastic for 60?''
She laughs. Would she go under the knife? 'Well I don't like pain or needles…but never say never.'
Sharleen's look these days is 'functional': she's wearing a children's shirt, vest and jeans when we meet and says, 'I usually think about what shirt I can wear where the buttons won't snag on my guitar strings.'
She's still body conscious: 'there's a lot of things, I'd love to change; my bum, thighs. Like everyone, I'd love to wake up every day looking like Angelina Jolie,' says Sharleen, 'and if I had the body of Madonna I'd be in a bloody leotard.' But she's not going to sweat over it: 'I've never been to a gym in my life.'
Sharleen tried Ashtanga but, 'lived in fear of my instructor and would make up excuses telling her I couldn't come.'
'If I had the body of Madonna I'd be in a bloody leotard'
But after giving birth and seven months of breast-feeding, Sharleen looked at her body and thought, 'there's nothing happening here...' So she took up Hatha yoga, 'and I found everything was a lot better, getting up, sleeping, even going to the toilet…'
I tell her she looks great. She says she doesn't find it easy: 'You will always be viewed as a woman, as something to look at first and foremost no matter how much you prove yourself.' Does that bother her? 'It's nothing to be angry or upset about,' she shrugs, 'it's the difference between men and women. But when you look in the mirror every morning you make an effort to look good, you do that for yourself.'
Confidence has come with age for Sharleen. 'When you're growing up you're trying to keep a lot of people happy,' she says, 'but now I don't give a sh*t about what other people think. I think you become more accepting of yourself and less of other people.' She urges others to do the same, 'stand up; be a bit braver, it's very liberating.'
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