Martin Kemp has spoken out on the reason behind son Roman’s controversial claim that he “has no mates” and lives a “lonely” life.
Roman, 31, was criticised for saying his musician dad had no friends, after the former Spandau Ballet star revealed wife Shirlie Kemp was his “favourite person”.
However The One Show star Roman later explained he was commenting on the “loneliness that can accompany fame,” explaining he did not want it to be a “sob story” for his famous father.
In the latest episode of the duo’s FFS! My Dad’s Martin Kemp podcast, Roman quizzed his 62-year-old father about his lack of friends.
He said: “I don’t know if you saw but there was a few headlines picked up on an interview that I did that said you have no mates.”
Martin replied: “Yeah, that’s quite true. I don’t have any mates.
“I don’t know why that is and I’ve thought about it since we spoke about it. I don’t know why I don’t have any mates, but I don’t.
“It’s not that I don’t like people and it’s not that I don’t enjoy people’s company.”
Roman explained that people do, in fact, like his dad, to which Martin queried why no one rings him up and asks him to go to the cinema.
Reflecting on the last time he “hung out” with someone who wasn’t his family or from work, Martin said it would have been when he was part of Spandau, “35 years ago”.
And when asked if he had been on a “man date” and gone to the pub with someone in the past 20 years, Martin also admitted that he hadn’t.
Martin added: “The only people that I’ve ever seen as mates, as real mates, that I trust completely are the people that are in my band, that I spent a lifetime with, we travelled the world together and we discovered our personalities together.
“They are the people that I would think of as my real friends, we have shared secrets that only us know of.”
Martin and Roman concluded the end of Spandau – which saw singer Tony Hadley, drummer John Keeble and saxophonist Steve Norman unsuccessfully suing Gary Kemp for a share of his songwriting royalties – had an impact on Martin’s ability to trust people.
Martin added: “The way the band fell apart in the end is the reason I start thinking, ‘can I really trust anyone?’ Maybe that’s why I don’t have any friends.”
Martin and Roman Kemp are appearing on Celebrity Gogglebox tonight at 9pm on Channel 4.