NEWSPhil Collins Reveals His Biggest Regret After 3 Failed Marriages
Phil Collins recently spoke out about his relationships with his daughter Lily (left) and third wife Orianne Cevey.
Oct. 5 2026, Published 11:44 a.m. ET
Phil Collins, the legendary drummer for Genesis and successful solo artist, recently told Piers Morgan that his biggest regret in life is how his three marriages fell apart.
"Sometimes I jumped. Well, one time I jumped, two times I was pushed,” said the 75-year-old singer. “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."
'I Was Gone, and We Grew Apart'
Phil Collins has been married three times.
He married Andrea Bertorelli in 1975 and adopted her daughter Joely. They later had a son together, Simon. The eight-time Grammy winner and two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee (as a member of Genesis and later as a solo artist) said that the grueling pace of life on the road ended his first marriage.
"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."
Five Children Across Three Marriages
Phil Collins has five kids.
He married Jill Tavelman in 1984, which lasted until 1996. They had a daughter together, Lily Collins, an actress who appears in Emily in Paris. His third and last marriage, to Orianne Cevey, lasted from 1999 to 2006. They share two sons together, Nicholas and Matthew.
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'There's Still So Much Time to Move Forward'
Lily Collins wrote that she had a tempestuous relationship with her father, but they have since reconciled.
Piers read an excerpt from Lily’s 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. "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."
However, the two of them managed to patch things up, and on his 75th birthday earlier this year, she said she thought of herself as "lucky to have hugged you, laughed with you, and reminisced with you on such a monumental day."
'It Could Have All Gone So Terribly Wrong'
Phil Collins said that his 2024 health scare was so severe, that his family were saying their final goodbyes.
Phil had previously revealed that his 2024 health crisis and alcoholism left his family uncertain if they’d ever see him again.
"My kidneys were packing up, my organs were just seizing up," he said in an interview. "People were coming to say goodbye."
Phil himself was unconscious throughout this crisis.
“But I don’t remember them coming," he said. "I didn’t have [any] idea this was going on. They were all worried that they wouldn’t see me again. It could all have gone so terribly wrong."
