Phil Collins Reveals His Five Children Were Called to His Bedside as His Organs Began ‘Seizing Up’ — ‘People Were Coming to Say Goodbye’
Phil Collins has opened up about one of the darkest moments of his life, revealing that his five children were summoned to his bedside when doctors feared the music legend might not survive.
The 75-year-old Genesis star reflected on his extraordinary career and serious health struggles during a conversation with Piers Morgan for Uncensored.
Collins said there was a point when his condition became so severe that he was connected to a dialysis machine as his body began shutting down.
“It was not looking good at one point,” he admitted.
For his family, the situation became frightening enough that they feared they might be seeing him for the final time.
‘People Were Coming to Say Goodbye’
Morgan asked Collins whether his health battles had left him feeling fortunate simply to still be alive.
“Yeah. I do,” Collins replied.
He recalled being on dialysis while doctors faced difficult decisions about what came next.
“I was on a dialysis machine, things were just breaking down,” he said. “The decision was whether I should be kept on a dialysis machine.”
Collins previously revealed that his manager contacted his five children and asked them to gather around their father’s hospital bed.
“My kidneys were packing up, my organs were just seizing up,” Collins recalled. “People were coming to say goodbye.”
Perhaps most heartbreaking of all, Collins wasn’t fully aware of what his family was experiencing around him.
“I don’t remember them coming,” he said. “I didn’t have no idea this was going on.”
His children understood how serious the situation had become.
“They were all worried that they wouldn’t see me again,” Collins said. “It could all have gone so terribly wrong.”
All Five of His Children Rushed to His Side
Collins has five children from his three marriages.
His eldest daughter Joely and son Simon are from his marriage to Andrea Bertorelli. He shares daughter Lily Collins with his second wife, Jill Tavelman, while sons Nicholas and Matthew are from his marriage to Orianne Cevey.
For all five, their father’s medical crisis brought the possibility of an unimaginable goodbye.
Collins has spoken previously about battling alcoholism, while years of physical problems have also dramatically changed his life.
According to the supplied account, he has continued dealing with complications stemming from a spinal injury suffered in 2007 and has also been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
He retired from music in 2022.
‘All I Wanted to Do Was Be a Drummer’
Despite everything that followed, Collins told Morgan that the overwhelming emotion he feels when looking back at his life is gratitude.
“Lucky,” he replied when asked how he views his journey.
Long before Genesis, international tours, hit records and worldwide fame, Collins’ ambitions were much simpler.
“All I wanted to do was be a drummer, and earn a living with it, really,” he said.
He remembered watching professional drummers from the orchestra pit during his younger years and realizing that if he wanted that future, he needed to prepare himself for it.
That determination eventually helped carry Collins into one of the most successful careers in popular music.
But decades later, career achievements weren’t what made him describe himself as lucky.
His health had deteriorated to the point where dialysis was keeping him going, his organs were failing and the people closest to him had been summoned because they feared there might not be another opportunity to see him.
Collins survived a moment his family feared could be his last.
For a man who once dreamed only of earning a living behind a drum kit, surviving long enough to look back on everything that followed may now be one of the most meaningful parts of the story.