Mick Hucknall Addresses 3,000 Women Rumor: ‘Like a Kid in a Sweet Shop’

Simply Red lothario Mick Hucknall addressed the rumour that he’s slept with 3,000 women as he spoke in a candid new interview on Sunday.

The crooner, 65, who once boasted that he had ‘three lovers a day,’ dated a string of stars during his 90s heyday, enjoying unlikely romances with stars including Martine McCutcheon, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Helena Christensen.

And speaking to The Times this week he opened up about his extraordinary love life. He neither confirmed or denied the rumour but did admit he had his fair share of fun.

He has now moved on from his raunchy past and has been married to art dealer Gabriella Wesberry, 54, since 2010. They share a daughter called Romy who is 18.

He told the publication of his romances: ‘I was a kid in a sweet shop who couldn’t believe his luck. My poor wife. How she’s stuck with me, I don’t know.’

He also opened up on if he has spoken to his daughter about the gossip about his love life. 

Mick explained: ‘It’s so far in the past. And I have this peculiar old-fashioned morality. I’m not religious but I take marriage seriously. I’ve done it once and don’t intend to do it again. 

‘My wife knows that and my daughter does too. I’m completely devoted to the family and, again, that may be something to do with the amazing dedication that my father showed me.’ 

He was also asked if any of his past encounters worried him at all in light of the MeToo movement and more open conversations about consent – to which he said: ‘It was always mutual.’

Mick’s roster of exes reads like a who’s who of some of the world’s most beautiful women, including a relationship with Catherine in 1998, a short-lived romance with Ulrika Jonsson and liaisons with model Helena, Melanie Sykes, Lady Victoria Hervey, and Steffi Graf. 

Another of his notable romances was with former EastEnders actress Martine, who claims that the pair went on a disastrous date in 1996 that ended with her vomiting in his dreadlocks – a story Mick has furiously denied as a ‘sad little fantasy’.  

Meanwhile, one of his would-be conquests Brigitte Nilsen somewhat unkindly described the singer as ‘not a very good-looking guy’, but hinted at what so many women saw in him, saying he was ‘outrageous, friendly and really cool’. 

Given his very colourful past, it’s perhaps no wonder that his new concert film has been slapped with a trigger warning about ‘sexual’ content because of lyrics about sex and drinking, with the singer previously admitting to his fondness for booze – as well as trying ‘every drug’. 

Now a reformed hell-raiser, Mick lives with his wife Gabriella, who he married at Forter Castle in Perthshire, Scotland, in 2010, and their 18-year-old daughter Romy.

While discussing his love life in 2010, Mick famously said: ‘Between 1985 – 1987, I would sleep with about three women a day, every day.

‘I never said no. This was what I wanted from being a pop star. I was living the dream and my only regret is that I hurt some really good girls.’

A documentary in 2004, entitled Is She Really Going Out With Him? added to the speculation after it claimed that the singer had slept with more than 3,000 women.

Then in 2006, when asked by the Daily Mail whether reports about his trysts were true, Mick said: ‘No, I’m guilty. It’s life’s experience. I think it’s searching for approval. Love me, admire me – something like that.

‘In most cases, though, it usually had to do with being drunk. You go into any city centre on a Friday or Saturday night and you see it going on all over the world. 

‘There’s nothing particularly unusual about it but because of being famous it gets reported, it gets blown up. Ultimately, it doesn’t make you happy.’

However in 2012 he tried to correct the figure, telling the Irish Independent: ‘If you actually take a look at what I said in the infamous interview and what the editor introduced, you can see that they are slightly different.

‘I didn’t apologise to 3,000 women. The 3,000 wasn’t my figure. That was the editor’s figure.’ 

And in 2019, Mick again denied the claim, saying that the interview where he revealed the number of women he had bedded, was taken ‘wildly out of context’ 

Speaking candidly to Rob McGibbon for The Sunday Times, the singer revealed that when he said: ‘In the crazy days, it was screaming girls everywhere and it felt like you were sleeping with three women a day,’ – that it wasn’t a literal number.’ 

However, the singer did admit to living a playboy lifestyle when his career was at its peak, which involved ‘a lot of’ alcohol and drugs.

He went on to say in the frank interview that his past confessions were ‘conflated’. 

But when asked what the real number was, he said: ‘I have no idea. I don’t put chips on the bedposts. 

‘I haven’t a clue and have never thought about calculating.’

One conquest that did not come to pass was his attempt at wooing Brigitte Nielsen who he invited to have a bath with him when she ended up back at his flat in Manchester at 3am. 

‘He lit more candles in his purple bathroom, put some music on, then we were in the water,’ she recalled in her autobiography. 

While she did take a dip with the hitmaker, things went no further.  

‘Now Mick is many things but one thing he’s not is a very good-looking guy. However what he does have is this expression of someone who knows he’s totally outrageous and yet very friendly, really cool,’ she said. 

‘So I was just winging it and there we were, taking a bath together. We talked about ourselves and nothing happened. To be honest, even if you’d paid me I couldn’t have gone to bed with the guy.’

During an appearance on Loose Women, Martin McCutcheon also had warm words for the star, saying he was a ‘gentleman’ when they dated back in 1996, especially after an embarrassing incident when she was sick in his dreadlock on the way home from a night out. 

‘He had the dreadlocks in and the dreadlocks flicked everywhere like that. Not long after that, he had to cut his dreadlocks off,’ she said.

According to the former EastEnders star they continued to see each other after the incident and remained friends, but Mick was so furious by her claims, which she made on an episode of Loose Women, he took to X to give his side of the story. 

Accusing Martine of ‘dining out on a lie’, the singer wrote: ‘You vomited all over my driver’s car, not my hair. He was furious. 

‘You were so paralytic we had to put you to bed. As he will attest to. It’s a cheap, face-saving story.

‘So pls desist, show a little grace. You embarrass yourself with your sad little fantasy.’