Sharleen's love life hit by hectic schedule :
I'm too busy to have kids
from The Daily Record - July 9th, 2001 by John Dingwall

TEXAS singer Sharleen Spiteri can't find time to start a family because of her gruelling work schedule.

Speaking exclusively to the Record before the band's T In The Park performance, she admits that two decades of working to make Texas one of the world's top selling groups have taken their toll on her love life.

She jokes about how little time she gets to spend with her boyfriend Ashley Heath, the only man she has ever loved.

But she almost chokes when asked about any plans to be a mother.

Sharleen explains: "For Ashley and me to have a child, it would have to be the immaculate conception. Really.

"When I'm away, I'm in a dozen different countries and Ashley is back at home or on work.

"When I am on a long tour it makes it impossible for us to have children or contemplate children.

"We're not married and we're not engaged because I don't believe in engagements.

"It must be fantastic to have a baby but these days you don't need to get married to have kids.

"I wouldn't say I'm broody and I've never denied the fact that I want kids. When I have them, I'll have them.

"But it's pretty difficult when you are on tour all the time to make a baby."

Sharleen says she did not have boyfriends at school and recalls: "When I met Ashley for the first time I just knew he was the one.

"It was as though we had known each other forever. We were very relaxed together.

"I looked at Ashley and knew I wanted to be with him and that I wanted him to be the father of my kids.

"I suppose it was love at first sight. He was the one for me.

"I'm a bit of a romantic and that comes across in the songs.

"All that helps me to be romantic to a certain extent."

However, the couple did spend a whole fortnight together recently.

But Sharleen said that holiday in Jamaica was her first in 10 years and she desperately needed to charge her batteries after touring.

She said: "It was our first holiday together. We did a lot of swimming, scuba diving and snorkelling and some kayaking.

"We laid around on the beach, watched movies and tried to keep the mosquitoes off us.

"It was really relaxed. I had just finished the tour and was absolutely knackered. I just slept a lot and did a bit of people-watching."

However, she revealed there is one kind of people watching she detests - Channel 4's fly-on-the-wall cult TV show Big Brother.

"Ashley and I don't watch Big Brother because it is voyeurism," she says, bluntly.

"I'd rather be living than sitting in a house watching other people living."

Sharleen avoids abusing the celebrity status the TV housemates all desperately crave.

And she says it would be a nightmare to be a media couple like Posh and Becks.

Sharleen says: "I don't use the celebrity status mixed with my private life to sell records. It's not my thing.

"I don't feel I need to use it because the music speaks louder than anything else.

"And I don't go to loads of showbiz parties. Not that I don't fit in. I just have no interest in it." However, she knows that sex sells.

Though Sharleen can now be counted as one of the Scotland's best known sex symbols, she insists that is something she has achieved on her own terms.

She refuses to grace the covers of men's lifestyle magazines.

"Any great band has a frontperson and I can't avoid the fact that people focus on me, even if it means I get called a sex symbol," says Sharleen.

"Whatever. But anyone who says sex doesn't sell is an idiot. It always will do. It will still sell long after I'm gone.

"Each individual in Texas is very confident in their own way. We understand how the band works.

"If everyone was fighting over who gets the attention, we wouldn't get anywhere."

She also insists that no matter how big they have become, there will always be room for gigs in smaller venues like nightclubs.

At school, the only boy Sharleen had a crush on was two years older.

She said: "I was never one of those kids who dreamt of being the bride. I will be at some point, that's the way I look at it."

Sharleen, 33, insists Ashley is the perfect man to grow old with. "I won't drop Ashley for a toy boy," she laughs.

"Ashley is two years younger than me so I have a toy boy already."

Texas have sold 12 million copies of their recent albums White On Blonde, Hush and The Greatest Hits and are set for life.

Sharleen, who has homes in Paris, Glasgow and London, admits it's a far cry from her days as a hairdressing junior in Glasgow when she struggled to pay for scissors.

She said: "I have beautiful homes and can come and go as I please. It's a wonderful position to be in.

"Why would I want to swap places with Posh Spice and Beckham who seem to live for fame?

"Instead, I'm quite happy to swan around and do my own thing. I'm happy to go shopping without feeling that the world is watching me.

"I'm very lucky in the lifestyle I have. I couldn't think of a better life than mine."


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