'Cars' Singer Gary Numan Confesses His First Hookup With Younger Wife May Be 'Illegal Now' After Meeting Her When She Was 12

"Cars" singer Gary Numan revealed the controversial way he met his wife of almost 30 years.

Numan, 68, and Gemma O'Neill, 58, first crossed paths at an event in 1980 when she was only 12 years old and he was 22.

The rockstar doesn't remember their first interaction, but O'Neill told The Independent that she was in tears when they met.

"I was completely overcome, I couldn't talk – I was crying, and I told him I really loved him," she recalled.

They continued to get to know one another at more and more concerts and fan events over the years, reported Entertainment Weekly.

"That's how I attracted her, which I think is illegal now," he told The Times.

When O'Neill was 18, they finally paired up for a photo together, though Numan did not yet know his bride-to-be's name.

"I had my first photo with him done then,” O’Neill said. “After that it was a bit easier. If you went to the airshows and stayed near his airplane, he'd walk past. I'd ask for an autograph, or a photo, and I was always very polite – never obsessive or weird."

Two years later, he finally signed an autograph for her, making it out to "Gemma," and he never forgot her name.

Things finally turned romantic when O'Neill's mom died unexpectedly. Numan got her phone number from the fan club that she was a part of in hopes of expressing his condolences. Though Numan said that tactic "may be illegal" now.

O'Neill "put the phone down" the first time that Numan tried to call her.

“I rang her up and said, ‘Hello, it’s me,’ and she put the phone down. She thought it was somebody playing a cruel trick,” he explained.

Numan had to convince his future bride that the caller really was him by answering a series of questions about himself. He finally took her out for their first date at a roadside chain restaurant after she joined him for a drive to a radio interview in Northern England.

"I took her to a Little Chef because I'm very down to earth," he said. "I don't do all that flash, rich-man, pop-star stuff."

O'Neill described their date as "really cute." She was "really hoping he'd ring again," but the couple didn't start seriously dating until a year later.

They finally married in 1997 after almost a decade together and now share three daughters: Raven, 23, Persia, 21, and Echo, 19.

O'Neill's life is the realization of her childhood dreams. According to Numan, his wife once told a high school career counselor that she didn't need a job because she was "going to marry Gary Numan."

Numan has previously opened up about their commitment to one another, even three decades down the line, reported The Sun.

"This is going to sound corny, given that it’s 30 years and four days since our first date, but I miss her even when she’s in a different part of the house," he said. “She’s everything I am not – which is most things, really."