Aussie grandma tells: Why I dumped Barry Gibb

Carol Ward was the star’s first love.

Fifty-two years after breaking Barry Gibb’s heart, Queensland grandmother Carol Ward has come face to face with the star. Carol, 65, was among thousands who turned out to Redcliffe on Valentine’s Day to watch Barry unveil a statue of the young Bee Gees. It was in the Brisbane bayside suburb that the Gibb brothers played their earliest gigs.

Carol was Barry’s first love. And Barry clearly remembered the girl who stole his heart then dumped him for another man, who she’s still married to today. “Barry looked straight at me and said, “I’ll talk to you later,” says Carol. “Hopefully, he’ll phone.” As she sorts through mementos, Carol recalls her first encounter with a 15-year-old Barry. “It was my last year in primary school and we had an end-of-year dance. Barry, Maurice and Robin sang,” she recalls. “At the end, I lined up to get their autographs.

“When it was my turn, Barry asked me where I lived. I didn’t think anything more of it, but somehow he found my house and turned up there the next day, and then every day after that. “He would hang around a little too long – long enough to miss the last bus, and my father would have to drive him home. “Dad got a bit sick of this, so using spare parts, he knocked together a bicycle, saying, ‘Here, Barry, ride home from now on.’”

Carol remembers often coming home to find the Gibb brothers singing up a storm in her kitchen. “Barry had this old bomb guitar. He was always playing music in our house, making up little songs. The boys were natural with their harmonies – they weren’t taught. Barry didn’t go to school, so he’d hang around our house, talking to mum. Robin and Maurice, who were 11, would often wag school. “I just think they enjoyed being around Mum and Dad, who were very kind-hearted. No-one ever left our house hungry.” Carol and Barry sealed their love by buying two red love-heart medallions with their names engraved on them. But the young lovebirds were torn apart by a high school dance.