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SINGER ANASTACIA SPEAKS FOR THE FIRST TIME ABOUT HER MARRIAGE TO HER MINDER – AND REVEALS WHY SHE LIED ABOUT HER AGE FOR 10 YEARS

By Chrissy Iley

Feisty singer Anastacia didn’t think she needed a man.

She certainly didn’t need a cocky beefcake of a bodyguard bossing her around.

But the friction between the singer and her minder Wayne Newton quickly turned to the crackle of sexual chemistry.

“I’d be saying to myself: ‘What are you even thinking? This is your bodyguard!’” Anastacia tells us.

They had worked together since 2004 and it certainly wasn’t love at first sight.

“I didn’t even like him,” she says.

“I was going to sack him because I thought he was far too cocky for me.

"He’s worked with Madonna, Mariah – all the divas.”

So did the relationship creep up on her?

“No, it was more a slap in the face,” she explains.

“I’d never thought about Wayne romantically. For a start, he was working for me. That’s a no-no.

"And, in the beginning, he was in a relationship with the mother of his boys, who are now 12 and five.”

They eventually got together and just six months later, Wayne proposed.

“It was coming up to my birthday in September last year and he was acting a bit weird,” she muses.

“Then he said: ‘Can I have a dollar?’ I went to look in my purse and there was a little box in it.

"I unwrapped it and it was a beautiful ring. He looked at me and said: ‘Will you get married to me?’

They got married on a Mexican beach in April last year.

With his tall, muscular physique, Wayne, 41, is the perfect guardian angel for 5ft 3in Anastacia.

And because of him she is now happy to be herself, which is partly why she is telling the truth about her age for the first time in 10 years.

“I’m turning 40,” she confesses. “And I’m happy to tell Fabulous because I’ve always lied about my age.”

And the fib had a huge impact when Anastacia was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003.

Although she was 35, her fans thought she was 31, making the story of her illness even more shocking.

“At that point I thought I really didn’t care that it was a lie,” she says, “because people thought that being young meant you didn’t get cancer, but there were tons of young women who wrote to me and had cancer.

"I felt I needed to be the voice for that.”

After beating the disease, Anastacia tried to correct her age.

“I would just say I was in my 30s.

"But that became embarrassing because people would wonder what I was hiding. I’m thrilled I can finally be 40.”

She freed herself from the lie after signing a new record deal and unveiling a softer look to promote her fifth album, Heavy Rotation.

Anastacia, who turns 40 on September 17, may be embracing the truth, but she isn’t so keen to welcome the ageing process.

“I’m a believer in saying: ‘If you want to get maintenance, get it,’” she says.

“If Botox and fillers make you feel better, just make sure you go to a good doctor.”

And it looks like she practises what she preaches.

“I got Botox six months ago,” she explains.

“And I had a laser peel to get rid of freckles on my face as I think they make you look older.”

Anastacia has had many personal battles to focus her mind away from love.

As well as beating breast cancer, she’s battled Crohn’s disease –  a chronic bowel disorder – since she was 13.

When I tell her that she’s a superwoman, she adds: “I’ve also been diagnosed with a heart condition – supraventricular tachycardia.

"I was having palpitations.

"They told me I could take a pill or have an operation. I said: ‘Enough operations for me, I’ll take the pill.’”

She says marriage has changed her.

She’s moved from her native America to Richmond, Surrey, and relishes being looked after.

“Marriage has a great effect on everything,” she reflects.

“Wayne really does look after me. He’s an unbelievable father.

"It makes me even more in love with him, seeing how great he is as a dad.”

Does this mean she is broody for her own children?

“No. I love children, and at different parts of my life I have wanted to have a child, but now my life is full,’ she says.

“In fact, when we married, that was the deal for both of us.

"Wayne would have given me a child but I said: ‘You can ask me in any language but the answer would be no.’”

Will she change her mind?

“No, I’m a deliberate kind of chick,” she laughs.

So would anything make her life even more blissful?

“To be honest I really feel like I have it all. In my world right now I’ve got everything as perfect as it can be.

"I don’t want to ruin the recipe.”

Anastacia’s new album is released October 27, featuring the single I Can Feel You.

 

Photography: Claire Nicholls, Eyevine, Rex Styling: Maureen Vivian at Carolhayesmanagement.co.uk Hair: Alex Price at Frank Agency using Frederic Fekkai Make-up: Karin Darnell at Onemakeup.com using Armani Cosmetics Anastacia wears: Gold and black dress (p7), from a selection by Amanda Wakeley (amandawakeley.com); silver dress (this page), from a selection by Marcelane (marcelane.com) bed linen (p7) from egyptiancottonstore.com