‘An idiot with kids’ and a compulsive cheater: Why Liam Gallagher is the worst husband in the world according to his ex-wives

“Not being loved and not being able to love.” That is Liam Gallagher’s greatest fear, as the former Oasis frontman himself said in an interview in 2020. A confession whose vulnerability clashes with the insolent and impudent public persona of the Manchester-born singer and, above all, with a romantic trajectory marked by infidelities, absences, and ill-fated marriages. At 51, Gallagher seems ready to make amends for the sins of his prolonged youth both in terms of health — he suffers from arthritis, psoriasis and an autoimmune disease that have led him to reduce the consumption of certain substances — and sentimentally, restoring or weaving for the first time paternal ties with his various offspring. On the fraternal side, concerning his reconciliation with his brother Noel and the return of Oasis to the stage 15 years after its dissolution, there is no news.

“I’ve been a bit of a shitty husband and it’s affected my kids, and I regret that,” he confessed in the documentary Liam Gallagher: As It Was (2019). Gallagher has four children from four different relationships. The youngest he has yet to meet in person. Gemma, 11, was born from his affair with American journalist Liza Ghorbani. “I wish them well. if they ever need anything, give us a shout,” he said, referring to the little girl. The news of Ghorbani’s pregnancy was the trigger for the breakup of his marriage to Nicole Appleton, a member of the pop group All Saints. As revealed in the court proceedings for the formalization of their divorce, Gallagher told her about the adultery a few hours before the news came to light in the press. He told her over the phone, while Appleton was on vacation in July 2013. He has confessed that his biggest regret in life is “breaking up marriages and being a f***ing idiot with kids.”

It was far from the first rodeo for the rock star. A few months after marrying Appleton on Valentine’s Day 2008, Gallagher had another extramarital affair. This time it was with the singer Lily Allen, in mid-flight, while the two were on their way to the Fuji Rock festival in Japan. Gallagher asked Allen not to say anything about their encounter because he was married, but the rumors gathered so much pace that he eventually called the singer to beg her to talk to his wife and deny everything. “When he informed me of their existence I was horrified, even though I wasn’t the one who was married or being unfaithful,” Allen revealed in her memoir My Thoughts Exactly. Appleton and Gallagher have a son together, Gene, 23, who is currently on his first UK tour with his band, Villanelle, after opening for his father on his most recent tour.

Gallagher has two more offspring, also the product of extramarital relationships. The eldest is Molly Moorish, 26, who studied sociology and politics and serves as an ambassador for Centrepoint, a homeless charity. The singer met her for the first time in 2018. They met in a pub, got drunk and, according to the progenitor, “there were tears and all that.” They then accompanied Gallagher’s other two male children to a Rolling Stones concert and, a few days later, on a trip to Ibiza by private jet. Gallagher even dedicated a song, Now That I’ve Found You, to her. Molly assured The Times that she held no resentment towards her absent father: “It’s all happened the way it was meant to happen. We just got on and I’m happy to have him now.”

Molly’s birth in the spring of 1998 kept the tabloids busy for weeks. “The week after he married me, he went to Los Angeles and slept with that girl, Lisa Moorish, and got her pregnant. What a son of a bitch,” Patsy Kensit, Gallagher’s first wife, revealed to the press. The Lethal Weapon 2 actress, model, and singer for the group Eighth Wonder was one of the most famous women in the United Kingdom at the time, a sex symbol whose poster decorated the walls of many an adolescent. Together, the couple became the face of the Cool Britannia revival, a time of hope in which London was once again the capital of the cultural world after years of Thatcherite obscurantism. From Princess Diana to the Beckhams, Alexander McQueen, Damon Albarn, Tony Blair, Jarvis Cocker, the films of Hugh Grant and the works of Damien Hirst. But it was Liam and Patsy, Patsy and Liam, who were chosen by the American edition of Vanity Fair magazine to represent, lying in bed under Union Jack-printed sheets, the phenomenon that would dominate the world during the 1990s.

It was Kensit’s own close friend — Moorish — who first introduced them. Fleeing press harassment, and after a couple of failed attempts, they married in the utmost privacy, Alone, at 8.30 a.m., at the Westminster registry office. The relationship, beyond the birth of Molly, was plagued by scandal. “I cried every day of my marriage,” Kensit would admit, a daily witness to the volatile character and fits of anger staged by a Gallagher immersed in addictions. The Oasis singer was regularly unfaithful, but Kensit admitted she regretted breaking off their relationship for that reason: “I’d heard all the rumors about his womanizing and I knew exactly what was going on behind my back,” she said. “Liam was very young and I could also see the temptations surrounding him. I wasn’t naive about how intoxicating it can be — and it was all new to Liam.” Their years of romance resulted in the birth of Lennon, who at 23 has taken advantage of his illustrious surname and striking physical resemblance to his father to carve out a niche for himself as a model on the international catwalk, working for brands such as Saint Laurent and Lanvin. He is also the face of Barbour.

With the exception of Gemma, the relationship between the rest of the siblings seems surprisingly harmonious and close considering their father’s background. They enjoy vacations together and even posed with Liam in a feature for The Times for Father’s Day in 2019. Gallagher had no qualms in confirming that he accepted the proposal because he “could use some good press.” The suggestion came from his current partner, whom he describes as a “savior.” Debbie Gwyther, the artist’s producer and manager, has shared her life with the vocalist since 2013, when the cameras caught them kissing in Ibiza. Six years later, on a trip to the Amalfi coast, they got engaged, but what would be Gallagher’s third wedding was postponed in 2023 due to his hip problems.

Despite the stability of the couple, a while ago they appeared in the newspapers when Gallagher was alleged to have grabbed Gwyther by the throat in a London nightclub, an aggression denied by the artist on his social networks and that did not extend beyond the scope of media gossip. Although the tabloids label their relationship as “toxic,” Gwyther has always been a staunch defender of her fiancé's good heart. In the 2019 documentary about Gallagher, she stated: “The Liam I know and the Liam that’s in the public eye are totally different. He sometimes drinks too much, he’s impulsive and foul-mouthed, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be tender at the same time. He’s very responsible with the family. The way he behaves with me, with my family members, with his children, and with his mother is the reason I love him.”

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