By Glen Williams
Pictures: David Hahn
Emerging from the shadows of abuse, the singer is relishing her role as full-time guardian to her grandsons.
Something transfiguring, something dramatically life-changing, has happened to Debra Byrne.
You can see it, plain as day, as the iconic entertainer bursts forth with a carefree chorus of Baa Baa Black Sheep, before lovingly scooping up two blond little rascals and tickling them, as they all fall down amid a flurry of cuddles and giggles.
The two little boys, Oliver, 4, and Aaron, 2, are actually Deb’s grandsons, who she now formally cares for full-time.
The little girl we watched grow up on Young Talent Time in the 1970s, the woman we marvelled at as the leading lady in Cats, Les Misérables and Sunset Boulevard, is now 52 and a grandmother!
For much of her career she was the celebrity we despaired of as she self destructed into a mire of depression, heroin addiction, alcohol, damaging relationships and suicide attempts — all a result of a violent alcoholic father, and the grandfather who started abusing her as a toddler. Deb first revealed her dark childhood in her 2006 autobiography, Not Quite Ripe.
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