Phil Collins is opening up about his biggest regret throughout the course of his career.
During a recent interview on “Piers Morgan Uncensored,” the 75-year-old musician reflected on the toll his career took on his relationships with his children and how it affected his three marriages.
“To some extent, I have to say I regret my marriages falling apart,” he explained. “Sometimes I jumped. Well, one time I jumped, two times I was pushed. But I wouldn’t have written it like that. But on the other hand, I’ve got five fantastic kids that I wouldn’t have if that hadn’t happened. So I have to balance it.”
The famous drummer was married to his first wife, Andrea Bertorelli, from 1975 to 1980. Collins adopted Bertorelli’s daughter, Joely, and the couple welcomed son Simon.
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He also shares daughter Lily with his second wife, Jill Tavelman, whom he was married to from 1984 to 1996, and sons Nicholas and Mathew with his third wife, Orianne Cevey, whom he was married to from 1999 to 2006.
When looking back on his first marriage, Collins admitted it broke down because he wasn’t around, as he was touring with his band, Genesis, and couldn’t be home.
“Genesis did, in one year, I think, three American tours, two European tours, and a tour of Japan. And when I ended up getting separated from my first wife, the guys in the band said, ‘Well, why didn’t you tell us? We’d have stopped it.’ But that’s easy to say in retrospect,” he said. “I was gone, and we grew apart.”
Despite his failure to make his relationships with his wives work, Collins said he “always tried to be there for the kids,” and that he never planned on getting married three times, noting, “You don’t go into life thinking that.”
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His daughter Lily, who stars in the hit Netflix series “Emily in Paris,” wrote about her relationship with her father in her 2017 memoir, “Unfiltered: No Shame, No Regrets, Just Me.”
“I’m learning how to accept your actions and vocalize how they made me feel,” she wrote in an excerpt read by Morgan. “I accept and honor the sadness and anger I felt toward the things you did or didn’t do, did or didn’t give me. I forgive you for not always being there when I needed it, for not being the dad I expected. I forgive the mistakes you made. And although it may seem like it’s too late, it’s not. There’s still so much time to move forward.”
The father-daughter duo has managed to put the past behind them, as she shared photos of them celebrating his 75th birthday together in January, writing “Love you to the moon and back again…”
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In a birthday message to her father, she expressed feeling “grateful” to be able to celebrate the milestone birthday with him, saying she considers herself “lucky to have hugged you, laughed with you, and reminisced with you on such a monumental day.”
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She also shared a tribute to him on her Instagram stories for Father’s Day, writing that she is “endlessly grateful for your unconditional love, guidance and support.”
Now as a parent, I have a newly found understanding and deeper appreciation for everything you’ve done and continue to do,” she wrote. “Tove is lucky to call you Grandpa P.”
Lily welcomed her first child, Tove, with her husband, Charlie McDowell, via surrogate in January 2025.
