'I've fallen in love with music all over again,' says pop star Kim Wilde

For many years Eighties pop star Kim Wilde was weary of her debut hit single Kids In America, the song that propelled her to worldwide recognition when she was just 17. She says: "I just got a bit bored with being Kim Wilde and Kids In America, and I just wanted out."

Written by her rock 'n' roll icon father Marty and her record producer brother Ricky, the song was the first of a string of 17 UK top 40 hits for the singer, including You Came, You Keep Me Hangin' On and Chequered Love. She also toured with David Bowie and Michael Jackson.

But then she abruptly quit her pop career, got married, had two children and became a landscape gardener.

Looking back, she reflects: "I got into horticulture and everything changed. I needed some time out; I needed a good break from that particular song."

But then after years of refusing to appear in Eighties' nostalgia tours, she finally agreed. She admits: "I thought, 'no one wants to see a middle-aged Kim Wilde with a mortgage and kids'. I knew I couldn't be that pin-up Kim anymore.

"But to my total astonishment the audiences were not only accepting of that, they lapped it up. So I've stuck around and that gave me the courage for a comeback. In the last few years, I've fallen in love with music all over again."

The singer, who released a new single Trail Of Destruction in August, performed at Radio 2's Party in the Park in September with a dazzling set before headliner Sting.

Now she is preparing to go on a world tour in 2025, and has a new album set for release in late January. Her tour will include all the classic songs that helped her become the most successful female singer of that decade and now, she says, she fully embraces what Kids In America means to her legacy as an artist. Kim admits: "It has given me so much more than a hit single. It's given me a whole career. I absolutely adore singing it now. I love the energy it brings to the crowd. They go absolutely crazy!"

The singer, who is a youthful-looking 63, says she has never been happier or busier.

After taking time out to raise her family - her son Harry is 26 and her daughter Rose is 24 - she is excited to be back on the road, performing new songs that have been composed with a team of writers, which include her niece, brother Ricky's daughter Scarlett.

"The tour starts next March and we're going all over the world. The album is called Closer, it's the blueprint from the album Close in 1988 which was one of my most successful albums. It has a strong focus on diversity of songs."

But last year she thought her career might be over as she was floored by a crippling back injury and had to fight her way back to recovery.

She says: "I suffered a slipped disc when I was doing some acoustic shows in Switzerland. It was one of the most terrifying things to ever happen to me.

"Luckily I wear a corset on stage and so I tied it really tight and I was able to finish all my gigs, but I was in total agony. I now know what it's like not to be able to stand up, sit down, or lie down and to be in extreme pain.

"I even started questioning my career, asking myself, 'do I really want to be a performer?'. And I knew, 'yes I do want to do live music and play with my band'. It was a real wake up call and life changing."

After a few months of recovery and physiotherapy, she started work with a personal trainer twice a week who she still sees: "I've strengthened my core and my back has been in fantastic condition ever since.

"I'm as physically and mentally strong as I have ever been."

With her tousled blonde mane and smoky eyes, Kim was an international pin-up with her look copied by teenage girls everywhere. Today she shrugs and says that she could never understand all the fuss about her appearance.

She eschews cosmetic surgery: "It's not something I want to do. Singing has kept me young. Because I'm a singer, I'm working my facial muscles all the time. At school I hated my lips, the other kids called me Mick Jagger, and I had no idea what an asset they would be. But I'm enjoying my big mouth now!"

It came as a surprise in 2022 when she revealed in a joint statement on her social media that she had separated from her
actor husband Hal Fowler the previous year and the couple were divorced after 25 years of marriage.

Hal, who was eight years her junior, was her co-star in the West End musical Tommy, and they wed in 1996.

When asked if she has a new partner, Kim says: "I'll say a 'no comment' on that today. Secret smile.

"As I've got older, I love my private life to be private. I've recently come off social media; my and Twitter are managed by my team."

Her home is in Hertfordshire where she has lived since she was 30, and she says: "My kids are backwards and forwards staying with me. I love it. They make my life great. My daughter is a wise one, she's my counsellor. If I ever have a conundrum she will sort it out.

"I look back now, and there are all kinds of ways I wish I'd been a better mum. I went back to work quite quickly after they were a certain age. Now with the wisdom of age, I think you can never spend too much time with your children."

In 1998 she began her second career as a landscape gardener, hosting shows for the and Channel 4. She won a gold award for her courtyard garden at Chelsea Flower Show in 2005, which she designed with her friend Richard Lucas.

Kim says: "A little garden that won a gold medal. It was hands down one of the most fantastic experiences of my life for all sorts of reasons. It was magical."

She adds: "I'm always out in the garden growing seeds, bringing on plants, flowers and vegetables. I'm the only one around here who is excited when it rains so I can pull all the weeds out more quickly and with less effort.

"I love being in nature - and water. I will swim in the sea at any time of year. I have a pool at home and I jump into it most days, even in January when it's three degrees."

There is a playful side to Kim which was revealed when she tipsily serenaded passengers on the Tube on the way back from a Christmas party with Ricky on guitar. It delighted her fans and went viral.

"My brother brings out the kid in me and I bring out the kid in him, we've always been rascals ever since we were kids. We were born virtually within a year of each other."

She smiles: "We love getting up to all sorts and getting drunk was one of them, before I gave up alcohol about nine years ago.

"That was one of the best decisions I've made for myself personally. I looked at the health benefits of not drinking which are huge and although I'm not a skinny girl, and I never will be, since I stopped drinking, my weight has stabilised too.

"I love food but I keep very fit and that helps moderate everything."

Kim grins when she says she plans to keep "rocking on for a few more years".

"Then I'll take a look at it. There is an anti-tour that we want to do, rare grooves, rare Kim Wilde tracks, B sides, that will be a very fan-focused thing. There are lots of plans in the pipeline."

And she says her famous dad has no plans to quit music either: "He's 85 and still jumps in a car, does a gig and drives himself back. Sometimes I turn up, go on stage and do a song with him. Dad is stronger than ever.

"I've realised that music is not something you just put on the shelf. That is not going to happen to Dad and it won't happen to me.

"I did try to do that when I retired, I tried to put music in a box and forget about it, but it wanted to jump out again."

Tickets are on sale now for Kim's UK tour in March next year with support from Cutting Crew from kimwilde.com