When Bono was a high schooler in the early days of U2, he started dating Ali Hewson, who watched their first show at the school gym in 1976. This relationship turned into marriage in 1982, and the couple welcomed their four children in forty years. But they also shared more than family ties.
The singer and Hewson collaborated on EDUN, a clothing brand that promotes fair trade in the fashion industry. In addition to that, the Irish businesswoman went on to co-found many different ethically conscious companies, including the skincare brand Nude.
As an activist, she also joined charity projects, like the one aiming to help child victims of Chernobyl in the ’90s. Meanwhile, Bono focused on his work with U2.
While both parties went on with their business lives, they remained committed to their marriage, according to the singer’s words in a New Yorker Festival interview in 2022. Still, the singer wrote in his autobiography, ‘Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story,’ that they had their ups and downs throughout the years.
Bono mentioned that Hewson had to take care of their children on her own when he joined his band for tours, which caused struggles in his family life. For that reason, while talking about the book’s purpose in an interview with Sunday Times Magazine, he said:
“I also wrote the book to explain to my family what I was doing with their life because it was they who permissioned me to be away with U2 or lobbying Congress. Ali gave me the chance and covered for me at home. So I’m not writing a rock’n’roll memoir, [or] an activist’s memoir, I’m not just writing a sojourner’s memoir, I’m trying to write a love letter to my wife.”
During the same chat, the U2 vocalist also revealed his wife’s effect on him and their four kids by adding:
“She’s not just a mystery to me, by the way. She’s a mystery to her daughters, to her sons. I mean, we’re all trying to get to know her. She’s endlessly fascinating. She’s… full of mischief.”
Ali Hewson’s influence even seeped into some of Bono’s songs. In the late ’80s, he wrote ‘Sweetest Thing’ during U2’s ‘The Joshua Tree’ sessions as an apology for forgetting her birthday.
You can listen to the song in the video below.
