The new me

After taking a long look at herself, Kim Wilde has decided that she will be a new kind of woman in ’91.

Out goes the wary young singer forever on the lookout for people who she suspected might take advantage of her. And out goes the obsession with achieving superstardom that has driven her too hard for too long. In comes a confident lady just turned 30, assured of her beauty, poise and talent. And happier deep inside herself.
‘My priority is to be happy… and that happiness doesn’t come from selling more records or putting on bigger shows than everyone else,” says Kim.
The way to get it is much more simple and uncomplicated. It is all about the things that really matter in life – family, close friends and living true to values you believe in.
“Before I was much too absorbed in myself and my career and it closed me off from so much.
“Now I really enjoy Bharing my life with other people and being open with them. Not long ago if I saw a picture of myself in a paper that was in any way unflattering I would have been screaming down the phone over it.
“Now things like that just don’t matter. I am much more relaxed and believe me, it is so much better for my brain and for my life.”
The singer – enjoying her latest hit with I can’t say goodbye – said: “I think it is OK to get involved with your own small problems from time to time, but to let them rule your whole emotional life is so destructive.
“1 am not saying that having all those big career things happen to me didn’t give me any pleasure, but it wasn’t anything lasting.
“So I started listening to myself more and found the things that really mattered to me and made me truly happy.”
She iB content being herBelf, and men can take a back seat for the moment. “1 am not particularly looking for a relationship, I am really enjoying being on my own for now,” says Kim, whose love affair with pop star Calvin Hayes ended in the summer after two years.
“I don’t like having casual affairs. I believe in keeping men as Platonic friends until I find someone who I can’t resist.
“I think sex should really be for people who are madly in love with each other.”
An important part of her life these days is her charity work. Her chief concern is raising money for sufferers of an illness called Freidreich’s ataxia.
One of her best friends has been struck down by this hereditary brain disease, which causes muscle-wasting and walking difficulties. “It is not particularly well publicised and that is one of the reasons I want to help it as much as I can. “I have got a lot out of life – now I believe in putting something back. “