Kim Wilde is laughing about getting older. The woman who burst onto our television screens in 1981 with Kids in America, all blonde hair, attitude and irresistible pop hooks, is about to turn 66, and she couldn’t be happier.
The British pop icon is still gorgeous and also has a beautiful way of looking at the passing years. For her, growing older has brought something that all the fame, chart success and international adoration of her youth couldn’t quite deliver: peace of mind.
“I’m really enjoying getting older,” Wilde tells me during our Zoom conversation ahead of her Australian tour next month.
“It’s been a journey, of course, ups and downs, ins and outs, drama and beauty, every adjective you can think of. I feel like I’ve experienced it all, and I think it just gets better and better.
“You get to know who you are. I know it might sound ridiculous for a 66-year-old to say, but it’s never too late to rediscover who you are. You might think you’re one person, and then discover you’re someone else as well. It’s not that you abandon who you were; you discover you’re much more than you thought you were.”
It’s a revealing answer from someone whose public identity was established before she was old enough to fully understand herself.
“…I know it might sound ridiculous for a 66-year-old to say, but it’s never too late to rediscover who you are.”
Wilde was just 20 when Kids in America turned her into an international sensation.
The hits kept coming, from Chequered Love and Cambodia to You Keep Me Hangin’ On and You Came. Australia embraced her enthusiastically, and that affection has endured for more than four decades.
Yet behind the glamorous image and extraordinary success was a young woman still finding her feet.
“For me, that’s a great prize of getting older,” she says.
“You can acquire a confidence and peace of mind that are hard to acquire at a young age. I meet lots of young people who seem completely sorted, and I envy them. I think, ‘Wow, how did you get to be so wise, content and successful at such a young age?’
“But we all have our own journey, and it took me quite a long time to get to a point where I can honestly tell you that I’m the most content and happiest I’ve ever been in my life.”
There have been significant personal changes along the way. Wilde divorced about four years ago, although family remains central to her life. Her son, 29, and daughter, 26, both have long-term partners, and she describes the family as closely connected.
For someone who spent much of her twenties travelling the world, another kind of fulfilment eventually beckoned.
“I became a pop star at such a young age, I was 20, and by default, all my eggs were in that basket. By the time I found gardening, I was about 30, and I knew there had to be more to life than putting out another album and promoting it,” she says.
“Luckily, I met my then-husband, and we wanted to have children. That set off an adventure of wanting to garden and create a garden for them.
“I think there was also a lot of spiritual longing in me. I’d been disconnected from nature for a long time, and in the ’80s I felt a real longing to get back to the earth. I’m very connected to it now. I’m still an avid gardener, and a huge part of my year is sowing seeds, bringing on plants and working in the garden.”
She became so accomplished that she won a gold medal at the Chelsea Flower Show.
When I mention my own love of gardening and the peace that comes from getting outside and working with the earth, she immediately agrees. The conversation drifts naturally towards the restorative qualities of nature.
“I’m a cold-water swimmer, so I love being in the sea all year round,” she begins. “I particularly love the ocean. For years, I didn’t even really get in the sea, but in the last few years I’ve been getting in it all year round. Or lakes, I was in Switzerland last week and got in some lakes there. It was lovely.
“We’re made of water, so of course we want to go back to where we came from. It’s a primal thing.”
That connection with her body and the natural world became particularly important following a serious back injury.
A slipped disc caused by repetitive strain left Wilde facing a lengthy recovery and uncertainty about her ability to perform.
“I got mine through something I was doing every day, and I hadn’t really noticed I was doing it,” Wilde says. “Anyway, I fully recovered, and it gave me so much faith in the human body. Its ability to heal itself is phenomenal.”
Recovery took about six months, she explains, concentrating on rest, core strength and swimming, without undergoing surgery.
“It did take a long time, about six months, but I didn’t have surgery or any intervention. I worked on building my core and resting it. I started swimming and all kinds of things. So, yeah, I’m in great shape. I’m ready to rock.
“Nothing’s going to get this old girl.”
She laughs at how dramatically perceptions of ageing have changed.
“I remember my grandma when she was 60 and thinking she was an old lady,” she says. “She looked like an old lady. She’d be absolutely staggered if she could see me now at this age.”
Wilde toured with Michael Jackson at the height of his fame and remembers being given an extraordinary vantage point by Jackson’s manager, Frank DiLeo.
“He took a bit of a shine to me, and he used to let me stand side stage and watch the show from just a few metres away from Michael,” she says. “It was incredible to see that man move. He was much taller than you’d think, very tall, but so elegant in spite of being so tall.
“He was at the height of his fame, and it was amazing to be that close to someone so incredibly gifted and talented.”
David Bowie made an equally lasting impression.
“Working with Bowie was amazing, too. He was a lot more accessible as a person. I remember giving him a Marty Wilde T-shirt, one of my dad’s T-shirts, when I left the tour, and he was delighted.
“It was amazing that I got to work with both of those artists. I still pinch myself when I think about it.”
Her Australian Closer tour promises plenty of familiar songs alongside selections from her latest album.
“It’s basically a glorified greatest hits set, with a number of really great tracks from the new album Closer squeezed in.”
And she has a cheeky warning for fans.
“It’s very noisy, so bring your earplugs if you’re sensitive. It’s mostly standing on your feet and dancing, so do whatever you need to do. Have a handful of painkillers or something before you turn up!”
When I ask what advice she’d give her 20-year-old self, her answer is immediate.
“I’d say, ‘Lay off the booze.'”
Wilde gave up alcohol about a decade ago and wishes she’d done it sooner.
“I’m a bit of an all-or-nothing kind of girl. I did take it to the edge a few times, to the point where it wasn’t doing me any favours. So I’d say, ‘Just knock it on the head, girl.’ You could be just as happy, and have an even better life, without it.”
She’d also encourage her younger self to stick with music, which continues to reward her in ways she never expected.
“Music keeps giving back to me. The more I put into it, the more I get back. It’s like gardening: the more you do, the more you get back.”
Then she offers a reflection on love that feels especially meaningful given the changes in her personal life.
“It’s like love. The more love you give, the more love you get back. Even if someone doesn’t give it back when you want them to, it doesn’t make any difference. You stay in that frequency of love.
“You keep giving that love, because someday someone will pick up on that same frequency and give you the love you deserve back.”
That reference to frequency takes our conversation somewhere unexpected.
I mention my books about Jimmy Barnes and the world of mediums, and ask about Wilde’s much-publicised UFO sighting.
“Oh, man, you’ve really got me going,” she laughs.
Wilde is fascinated by the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence, ancient civilisations and what humanity might still have to discover about its past.
“I’m obsessed with the whole subject of intelligent life, whether it’s on our planet, the moon, the planets surrounding us or in other galaxies. And the nature of ancient civilizations, how advanced they were on this planet thousands, maybe millions, of years ago; forgotten knowledge, hidden knowledge, buried knowledge.”
A recent visit to Egypt’s pyramids only deepened her fascination. She acknowledges the misinformation circulating online, but says an unexplained sighting in her own garden profoundly changed her outlook.
“That experience absolutely blew my mind and opened me to the possibility of anything. I’m open to it. I’m a sponge for that information.
“I have a certain amount of critical thinking about it, but my instincts tell me something amazing is happening to the human race, and we’re just waking up to how amazing we are.”
For a few moments, the interview feels less like talking to an international pop star and more like catching up with someone who shares an interest in life’s bigger questions.
Our time is up. We exchange warm goodbyes, and Wilde tells me how excited she is about returning to Australia.
It’s been less than 20 minutes, but the conversation has travelled a fair distance from the pop charts of 1981.
At almost 66, Kim Wilde has found happiness in places she might never have imagined as a young pop star. And she’s still curious about what life might bring next.
Don’t miss your chance to see Kim Wilde celebrating 45 years of hits, including a very special opening-night performance on her 66th birthday! Book your tickets here: Metropolis Touring – Kim Wilde 2026
KIM WILDE – CLOSER AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2026
If you enjoyed this article, check out Don Walker on love, songwriting and ‘groping in the fog’.
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