Bono and his cousin Scott always 'felt like brothers'. In 2000, they discovered they were.

Growing up, U2 frontman Bono and his cousin Scott always felt close, like brothers.

It wasn't until 2000, when Bono was 40 and his father Bob was dying of terminal cancer, that he found out they were actually half-brothers. Robert 'Bob' Hewson had an affair with his wife Iris's sister Barbara, and Scott was their child. 

It was only this week that Bono finally revealed the identity of his half-brother to the world in an interview for The Irish Times to promote his forthcoming memoir, Surrender: 40 songs, One Story.

"The truth is with Scott we felt like brothers long before we knew we were," Bono said of his half-brother Scott Rankin.

"I love Scott and his mother Barbara. I must have known that something was up and I must have held my father responsible for kind of making my mother unhappy in the way kids just pick up things." 

Watch: Bono reads mean tweets while accepting his Glamour 'Man of the Year' award in 2016. Post continues below.

Speaking to Lauren Laverne in June 2022 for BBC Radio Four's Desert Island Discs, the 22-time Grammy Award winner spoke of finding forgiveness for his dad after the affair.

"My father was obviously going through a lot, but partly his head was elsewhere because his heart was elsewhere.

"I asked him [his father] did he love my mother, and he said yes, and I asked him how could this happen and he said, ‘it can’ and that he was trying to put it right, trying to do the right thing.

"He wasn’t apologising, he was just stating these are the facts. I’m at peace with it."

Scott Rankin, a former analyst and public servant, has welcomed the outing of his identity in Bono's book.

"Our extended family have known for some time and we agreed that it made no sense to keep this hidden any longer," Scott told The Irish Times.

"Bono’s book also happens to be an appropriate and sensitive way for us to acknowledge the connection. We have only love for our parents and we’re grateful to have our families’ support in sharing this story." 

Bono, real name Paul David Hewson, grew up in Dublin with dad Bob, mum Iris and older brother Norman. 

His beloved mother Iris passed away in 1974 when he was just 14, after developing a cerebral aneurysm. He says that they never spoke of her again at home and that his immense grief instead found its way into his music.

"These things that shape us are huge gifts in the end. At least they were to me because the wound that was opened up by my mother’s passing so quickly... became this hole, this void, that I filled with music. 

"Though the family seemed to disappear in that moment, I started finding other families: Ali’s family, the band, alternative families."

Bono with wife Ali in 2007. Image: Getty.

His complex relationship with his father continued with the revelation about half-brother Scott in 2000, just before Bob passed away of cancer in 2001. In the interview with Simon Carswell for The Irish Times, Bono reflects on how he has spent a lifetime seeking his opera-loving father's approval.

“I just longed for the attention of my father, and I have some lovely memories; it wasn’t all combative," he said. 

"Music was the thing that soothed his aching heart. It sounds like a line from a country song," he continued. "But it’s actually opera I am talking about. That is why he was attracted to the opera, because he was one, and I suppose he had the voice and this is how he gave it to me."

As a teenager, Bono attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he responded to an advert by fellow student Larry Mullen Jr. to form a rock band. 

Together with David 'The Edge' Evans, his brother Dik Evans and Adam Clayton, the five students started a band called 'The Hype' before becoming a four-piece and changing their name to U2. 

While playing pubs and growing their fanbase in the early 1980s with albums 'Boy, 'October', and 'War', it wasn't until their fourth studio album 'The Unforgettable Fire' in 1984 and their performance at Live Aid in 1985 that they transitioned to next-level fame. 

Rolling Stone magazine ran a cover story with the title "Band of the 80s" in March 1985. The article included the line that U2 were to some, "the only band that matters", cementing their status as stadium-filling rock stars.

In his soon-to-be-released memoir, Bono, who wears his signature tinted sunglasses because of glaucoma, describes his incredible life and loves through 40 U2 songs. 

He says the book is a "love letter" to his wife Alison 'Ali' Hewson who he also met while still at Mount Temple Comprehensive School. Together the couple have four children: activist and entrepreneur Jordan (33), actor Eve (31), Elijah (23), lead singer and guitarist of Inhaler, and rugby player John (21).

“Ali covered for me at home," Bono says of his wife.

"It is a love letter to her, but I want my children to know what I was doing with myself. I got to spend a lot more time with my kids than most because when I am home, I am really home. When we were away because U2 had such good fortune, we could bring our children with us. So I don’t feel they lost as much as they could have, but they lost some of me and that is why I wrote the book.” 

U2 on the set of making the music video for 'Desire' in 1988. Image: Getty.

Of his successful 40-year marriage, Bono says that he and Ali shared a mix of "friendship and romantic love" but that his unconventional rock and roll life of touring and activism took a toll on their partnership.

"There were times when I was home, and I wasn’t. I was somewhere else in my head. And that nearly drove Ali away. But the two of us have, at different times, had our love tested, and the sense that one will get the other home overpowers all other desires." 

Aside from his relationships with his family, Bono tells journalist Simon Carswell that his memoir deals with the rollercoaster of U2's success over the years and how they have remained as a four piece through various health and addiction battles.

“It has been very difficult at times to stay together. There’s always a moment when somebody is about to fall out of the boat and we managed to get them in. 

"But at some point somebody might just say: I just want out, or they are being thrown out of the boat because it’s too hard to deal with them. It would be almost impossible for that to happen because we just go after each other. 

"We never give up on each other,” Bono said.

Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story by Bono will be published on November 1st by Hutchinson Heinemann and is available to pre-order online or at all good bookshops. 

Feature Image: Getty.