Herbert Grönemeyer on late happiness as a father: “You’re just as naive as you used to be”

“One is just as naive and joyful as before. The joy of my children is unbridled, whatever their age”said Grönemeyer on Sunday in the Ö3-“breakfast with me”. be it “wonderful as it is”, so the artist about his late fatherhood. How long he can accompany his youngest of three children is definitely an issue: “In general, the question is: How long will I be able to continue on this path? I’ve seen how limited life can be, so I’m under no illusions about that. I’m someone who fights for the day I live. I don’t think much further.” His first wife Anna died in 1998 as a result of breast cancer.

In any case, he is not particularly strict with his children. He sees himself as “playful contemporaries”. “The best moment with my child is when I look at them and realize what an incredible person is developing.” The relationship with his much younger, second wife Josefine Cox did not change with the birth of the child. “It is important that you can do everyday life. And everyday life is often tough. It’s part of the deal, you have to go through with it. But I don’t have a gang of housekeepers or clerks. We live everyday life like thousands of other families, but of course in a socially more comfortable situation.”