Rick Astley and wife Lene have been together for 36 years and married for 21. The eighties pop star met Lene early in his career during a promotional tour in Europe.
Astley, 58, has chronicled their relationship in his new memoir Never.
It was early in his career when their paths first crossed, during a trip to Denmark. At the time Lene was working for company BMG and was part of a group that had arrived to meet him at the airport.
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“One of them was a blonde girl, who introduced herself as Lene,” he writes in the book. He remembers her holding a clipboard and folder and appearing “incredibly well organised.”
Not only did he immediately enjoy working with someone so thorough, but he “couldn’t help but notice that she was also breathtakingly beautiful.”
“She sort of burned herself into my brain, to the point where even today I can still remember exactly what she was wearing when I saw her at the airport: black cowboy boots, black tights, a long black coat.”
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Lene escorted them to a hotel where Astley did a series of interviews, then to a Cliff Richard performance, and then to Lene’s friend’s nightclub around the corner.
Astley left the Cliff Richard performance early just to be with her.
From then on it was just the two of them. Then, he went from one club to another, to a bar, and then to another club, he recalls.
“There was something about her personality that was unbelievably attractive,” he writes. “She was confident and sophisticated, she appeared comfortable in her own skin, and we seemed to have a lot to say to each other.”
They shared their first kiss in the hotel lift that night.
After the trip was over they hugged and he returned home. He didn’t see her again until later that year in London where he spotted her at a gig. She told him she had a boyfriend and he was devastated. He too had a girlfriend by then but their relationship was strained.
The next time they crossed paths Lene was no longer with the record label and they were both single. She told him she’d tried to call him with a number he gave her but they hadn’t put her through.
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After this encounter, Astley took matters into his own hands and called her and they pair started writing letters. They met up for dinner after his performance, parting ways once more.
By this stage, Astley had released another album, and his career continued to surge. He was famous, worldwide, and still longing for Lene.
Lene came to his next gig in Milan Italy and the next day they drove to meet some of her friends who did a double-take when they saw who he was. She hadn’t told them she was friends with Rick Astley.
“I felt almost intoxicated by Lene’s company,” he writes.
And yet, another snag. Astley was in a relationship, and Lene ultimately told him she couldn’t see him anymore because of this and he knew she was right. He broke up with his girlfriend and flew to Copenhagen.
“The next evening, there was a knock at my hotel room door. It was Lene.”
He writes: “It was March 1989, thirty-five years ago. Lene and I have been together ever since.”
Their relationship hasn’t been all smooth sailing. The couple welcomed a child, a daughter Emilie. By then Astley was 27 and feeling burned out.
He decided to walk away from his career and while initially he felt relieved, he also experienced depression and at Lene’s urging began therapy which he says was “life-changing.”
Astley began writing songs and Lene built a career in films as a producer and was nominated for her film Cashback.
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Astley’s career would later reignite courtesy of a phenomena called Rickrolling.
Rickrolling is when you troll someone online by linking to the music video for his hit Never Gonna Give You Up which is designed to pop up unexpectedly via meme.
The first instance of Rickrolling can be traced back to 2006 and quickly grew, Astley had come out of a long retirement and the time and was initially reluctant to ride the Rickrolling-inspired wave of fame but eventually embraced it.
And Astley and Lene’s daughter Emilie is all grown up now and recently married.
Astley writes in his memoir: “I’ve got an incredible, stable, loving family.”
Of his daughter’s recent nuptials he says she and her new husband are “happy in exactly the way you would wish your children to be happy.”
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