Kate Bush's penchant for privacy is as famous as her iconic music, but while the singer refrains from life in the spotlight, she does not agree with the "recluse" label she is often given.
The 67-year-old lives a quiet life on the Devon coast with her husband, Danny McIntosh, and their son Albert, whom they affectionately call Bertie.
"A lot of people refer to me as a recluse, which I'm not," she said in 2005. "But I do like to try and live as normal a life as possible. I just find that much more interesting than spending my life living in publicity.... I like to just get on with my life, really."
Find out more about Kate's private life away from the spotlight.
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© Evening StandardRecluse
Kate does not like to be called a recluse because she prefers to live her life out of the limelight.
"Sometimes it's very frustrating that I'm portrayed in such a strange way, when people who go on television and eat live insects and spend three weeks up a tree with a camera stuck up their nose are considered normal. I'm sorry, but from where I sit, I'm the normal person," she said in 2005.
In 2016, Kate claimed that people calling her a recluse made them feel more "comfortable".
"I suppose people really like to put things into boxes or pigeonhole people," the 67-year-old told Radio 6 Music.
"That tag kind of hung around for a long time when I wasn't making albums or between albums. I can think of a lot of worse things to be called."
She added: "And how can someone who's a recluse get up in front of three or 4,000 people and do all those shows? I'm not a recluse, but it makes people feel comfortable to call me that, I suppose."
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© Getty ImagesTouring
Kate hasn't performed on stage since her 22-date Before The Dawn residency at London's Hammersmith Apollo in 2014. Before that, she hadn't performed live in 35 years, since 1979's The Tour Of Life.
"It wasn't designed that way, because I really enjoyed the first set of shows we did [in 1979]. The plan at the time was that I was going to do another two albums' worth of fresh material, and then do another show," she told The Independent in 2016.
"But of course, by the time I got to the end of what was The Dreaming album, it had gone off on a slight tilt, because I'd become so much more involved in the recording process.
"And also, every time I finish an album, I go into visual projects, and even if they're quite short pieces, they're still a huge amount of work to put together. So I started to veer away from the thing of being a live performing artist, to one of being a recording artist with attached visuals."
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© Getty ImagesHusband
Kate is married to guitarist Danny McIntosh, with the pair marrying in 1992 after dating for some years.
Kate and Danny have collaborated on several occasions, with the guitarist featuring on songs like Rubberband Girl, The City, and Kate's album, The Red Shoes, which gave Kate her highest US chart number at 28.
Danny has also worked with other famous musicians, including Deniece Williams, Amii Steward, and Dollar, and he has performed in bands like Bandit and The Quick.
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© Gavin Bush/ShutterstockSon
Kate and Danny welcomed their son Bertie in July 1998; however, the pair kept his existence a secret for five years before fellow singer Peter Gabriel accidentally revealed the news.
Although Bertie grew up outside of the spotlight, he is now embracing the limelight and has become a talented singer and actor in his own right. Alongside joining his mother as a backing vocalist on her 2014 shows, Bertie featured on re-recordings of certain songs of his mom's.
Speaking about how her son inspired her to return to the stage, Kate explained in 2014: "Without my son Bertie, this would never have happened. Without his encouragement and enthusiasm, particularly in the early stages when I was very frightened to commit to pushing the 'go' button, I'm sure I would have backed out."
Kate added: "He is a very talented actor and beautiful singer, as you will witness.
"He brings something special to the show through his presence. Thank you, Bertie. Thank you so much."
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© Dave HoganFamous ex-boyfriend
For several years, Kate was in a relationship with bassist Del Palmer, with the pair meeting in 1977 with the formation of the KT Bush Band. Del and Kate worked together on plenty of her singles and albums and appeared in a documentary about the singer.
Del died at the age of 71 on 5 January 2024. Paying tribute to her former love, Kate said: "It's hard to know what to say… He was a big part of my life and my work for many years. It's going to take a long time to come to terms with him not being here with us.
"He was incredibly creative – talented in lots of different ways. He was a brilliant musician, bass player, a great artist – he was always drawing. Once he covered a whole recording consul [sic] in cartoons. It took him days and it looked absolutely stunning.
"He taught himself to be a recording engineer, engineering several of my albums and later releasing his own...I'm going to miss him terribly."
