There’s always a palpable flutter of excitement at HELLO!’s central London HQ when a glamorous big name from the US arrives to record our Second Act podcast. There’s just something about a bonafide international popstar rocking up for a chat that feels super-exciting — even when they’re as calm and down to earth as this week’s wonderful guest, Kathy Sledge.
Right on brand, one of the legendary voices behind We Are Family turned up with one of her nearest and dearest - not a sister, but her daughter who came along to help her mum with hair and makeup! And that’s why she looks so gorgeously glam as she sits down to share her secrets with our host Ateh Jewel…
In this week’s episode of Second Act, the Sister Sledge frontwoman opens up about the hit that almost broke up her family, the secrets to keeping her 45 year marriage alive and why you should never be a ‘lamp’ in a relationship.
As a teenager in the 70s, Kathy Sledge had global success singing iconic hits such as We Are Family with her band of sisters, and touring with the Jackson 5. But after spending her entire working life as the crowd-pleasing front woman of Sister Sledge, the mother of two felt something switch inside her when she turned 50.
“I came from growing up on stage and being in the public eye. You're there as an artist, you're pleasing people, you're making them smile. Off stage, I would always keep that persona. But as you get older, you change. I just didn’t care what people thought anymore,” she tells this week’s Second Act podcast.
“When I turned 50 I realised people are going to think what they think, and you can't control that. My business is not their business. It's a sense of confidence you get as you age.”
Still to this day We Are Family is an anthem played at gatherings all over the world. Yet Kathy reveals that behind closed doors the song almost destroyed their own family unit.
“It was a very personal thing to me and my sisters,” she says. “I feel like now it has become everyone's anthem. I always say it's going to be here for generations to come and I'm most proud to be the voice on that song.
“But when people ask my story, I'm like, ‘do you want the Ike and Tina (Turner) version or the (cleancut) Walton’s version?’ I always feel like we had such a huge challenge of having a song that brought so many people together as a family - at the risk of almost losing our own.”
© RedfernsThis year Kathy will celebrate her 45th wedding anniversary to husband Philip Lightfoot who she has two children Kristen, and Philip Jnr with. The singer, who is also a qualified personal trainer, says their secret to a long marriage has been to work as a team - and not get jealous of each other's wealth.
“I'm blessed that we're in the same field because you hear so many relationships where sometimes husbands don't understand it when your career starts blowing up,” she says.
“There were times in my life when I was not able to bring in what I needed to, financially, and he would carry that. And there are times when I carry us.
“Whatever we do, we can't compare because that’s unhealthy. You have to remember you are building together, that is important.”
We hope you enjoy listening to the episode as much as we enjoyed listening to Ateh having a little singalong with the music legend…
Listen to the Second Act podcast, now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts and Youtube.
