Bonnie Tyler dies aged 75, tributes pour in from Catherine Zeta-Jones
Bonnie Tyler, the Welsh voice behind Total Eclipse of the Heart, died aged 75. Catherine Zeta-Jones said her “heart is broken” as tributes flooded in.
Bonnie Tyler, the Welsh singer behind Total Eclipse of the Heart and Holding Out for a Hero, died on July 8, 2026, aged 75. Her family said she died in hospital after her condition was described as unexpected, closing the life of a performer whose voice carried from 1970s pop radio to later generations.
Born Gaynor Hopkins on June 8, 1951, in Skewen, Neath, Wales, Tyler grew up in a working-class family and left school at 16 before building a career that stretched across decades. Her early success came with It’s a Heartache and Lost in France, songs that established her as one of Wales’s best-known pop voices long before her later return to the international spotlight.
Tributes came quickly from figures who had known her for years and from admirers who had grown up with her records. Catherine Zeta-Jones wrote on Instagram that her “heart is broken” and described Tyler as a dear family connection. Tyler had been married to Robert Sullivan, Zeta-Jones’s cousin, and Zeta-Jones shared a photograph of the pair taken the night before her wedding. Tyler was also said to have sung at the ceremony. Sir Cliff Richard and Russell T Davies were among the other public figures who paid tribute.
Tyler remained a familiar presence well beyond her biggest chart years. In 2013 she represented the United Kingdom at Eurovision with Believe in Me, extending a career that had already become a fixture of British pop history. On February 1, 2023, Prince William presented her with an MBE at Windsor Castle for services to music, a formal recognition of a career built on songs that kept returning to radio, film, sports arenas and karaoke bars long after their original release.
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