Editing Maurice Gibb (section)

== Personal life ==

Gibb met Scottish pop singer [[Lulu (singer)|Lulu]] through [[Colin Petersen]] in 1967. Lulu recalls about Maurice, "I thought Maurice was cute, so I said, 'In that case, tell him to stop talking about me and take me out', He did just that, I never expected much to come from this, but in fact our relationship grew, after a fashion. Going steady is quite the wrong way to describe what was happening between us. Going unsteady might better sum up the way we fell in and out with each other". According to Lulu, she, Maurice and [[Robert Stigwood]] watched [[Pink Floyd]] at the [[Saville Theatre]] in London on 1 October 1967. Later, after his relationship with Lulu had become public knowledge, he said: "Lulu and I met on the ''Top of the Pops'' TV show three months ago, and then at the Saville Theatre in London last month".<ref name="around" />

Later in 1968, Lulu was seen in public with [[Davy Jones (musician)|Davy Jones]] of [[the Monkees]]; Jones was also a friend of Maurice. As Gibb recalled, "Davy Jones was a good friend of mine, I broke it off with Lulu over the phone and Davy called me up and said 'I am going to ask Lu to dinner with some friends, is that all right?' I said, 'Yes, I am not going out with her anymore, have a ball' and threw the phone down. They then took so many photos of them and made it look like a six-month romance, but she had only been out with him that one night, she did not even want to go out. She phoned me the next day and she was crying, saying she was sorry". Maurice later regretted not accepting her apology. "We just grew up, that's all," Maurice admitted. "We were miserable apart and when we started going out again, it got so that I didn't want to be with anyone. I used to phone her up from Los Angeles about twice a day. Then she'd call me back. We used to make about 90-minute calls".<ref name="around" />

In the same year, Gibb was seen in public with Hungarian singer [[Sarolta Zalatnay]], but he later insisted: "I'm not a Casanova and it's all most unfortunate. I've never been publicised to be available. Because of the stories of my affairs with Lulu and Sarolta, the fans feel, 'Oh, we won't bother about Maurice because he's always got a steady girl'.

Gibb and Lulu married on 18 February 1969 and separated in 1973.<ref>{{cite web|author=Marion Adriaensen |url=http://www.brothersgibb.org/history-part-4.html |title=History Part 4 |publisher=Brothersgibb.org |date=25 November 1966 |access-date=27 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230117155230/http://www.brothersgibb.org/history-part-4.html |archive-date=17 January 2023 |url-status=live }}</ref> Their careers and his heavy drinking forced them apart and they divorced, childless.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/maurice-gibb-601289.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220512/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/maurice-gibb-601289.html |archive-date=12 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Maurice Gibb – Obituaries, News |work=The Independent  |access-date=5 September 2011}}</ref> Gibb later said they both drank: "We didn't have any responsibilities, we'd just party."<ref name=drink>[[Woman's Day]] Australia, 3 October 1992. "Maurice Gibb: Demon Drink", page 8.</ref>

In her autobiography, [[Barbara Windsor]] claimed to have had a brief affair with him.<ref>Windsor, Barbara (2000). All of Me: My Extraordinary Life. Headline Book Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7472-7007-2. Page 121</ref>

=== Family ===
He married his second wife, Yvonne Spenceley Gibb, on 17 October 1975. They had two children. Their marriage lasted until his death. Maurice's alcoholic nadir came in 1991, when he pulled a gun on his wife and children after a month-long [[Binge drinking|bender]].<ref name=drink /> They left him and immediately went to brother Barry's house, refusing to come back until he had done something about his drinking. Maurice went into rehab, calling Yvonne and telling her he was going to stay because he wanted to stop drinking. She said that that was the call she had been waiting for.<ref name="drink" />

=== Substance abuse and recovery ===
Gibb said he had "battled the booze" since the 1970s. [[John Lennon]] introduced him to his favourite drink, scotch and coke:<ref name="Transcript of CNN Larry King Weekend interview">{{cite web |url=https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/lklw/date/2002-02-02/segment/00 |title=Interview With the Bee Gees |publisher=CNN |date=2 February 2002 |access-date=11 January 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221007230034/https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/lklw/date/2002-02-02/segment/00 |archive-date=7 October 2022 |url-status=live }}</ref> "If he had given me [[cyanide]], I would have drunk the cyanide, I was so in awe of the man."<ref name="drink" /><ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/johnlennoninhiso0000lawr |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/johnlennoninhiso0000lawr/page/168 168] |title=John Lennon: In His Own Words |publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing |last=Lawrence |first=Ken |date=October 2005 |isbn=9780740754777 |access-date=14 February 2015}}</ref> He would go out drinking with his neighbour, [[Ringo Starr]]. According to Barry, it got to the point where he became unreliable, and he would have to feel his way along the wall prior to going onstage.<ref name="drink" /> One factor in Maurice's recovery was the active intervention of his brothers, who had recently lost their youngest brother Andy. In an interview, Maurice acknowledged that his final years of alcohol abuse had been driven by his failure to reach Andy before his death, and his subsequent guilt. After rehab, Maurice started to rediscover his family again, spending quality time with them. To celebrate this, he and Yvonne renewed their wedding vows in 1992. The ceremony was attended not only by many members of their families but many of the friends Gibb made while at the rehabilitation centre.<ref name="drink" /> Maurice would remain sober until his death.