Billy Idol has a son named Willem and a daughter named Bonnie. It just so happened that the rock star also had a third child — but he discovered this in his 60s. As People notes, the British punk icon, 69, first introduced his second son, Brant, during his 2023 Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony. A new retrospective documentary chronicling Idol’s life, named “Billy Idol Should Be Dead,” which premiered at the Tribeca Festival, showed how they got in touch with one another after a DNA test.
The three-time Grammy award winner’s daughter Bonnie, who he had during his relationship with ex-girlfriend Linda Mathis, spoke about the process.
“My husband just surprised me with a 23andMe, with a DNA test as a Christmas present,” Bonnie says in the doc. “And then a few weeks later, I get the results back on the app and open it and I’m like, who is this? This Brant. And it says his info’s like, New York, 1985, looking for my bio dad. I was like, ‘What?’”
Brant then stated he found out the man he thought was his biological father was not, through his own DNA test.
“I was like, ‘Mom, is there a chance Mark might not be my biological father?, he said. “And she’s like, ‘Well, it’s pretty crazy, but back in the day, we broke up and I actually spent a weekend with Billy Idol.’”
Idol had fathered Brant while touring behind his 1983 album, “Rebel Yell.” Brant describes Idol as a “good man” who “loves his family.”
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Murjani Rawls may be reached at mrawls@njadvancemedia.com