Estranged Wife of Iron Maiden Vocalist Passes Away

That's right. You read it right. Current Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson lost his wife, Paddy Bowden, of over 29 years. She passed away unexpectedly at the apartment they shared in London.

Bruce had said that "this is a terrible tragedy which appears to have been a tragic accident". They had married in 1990, during what would have been the making of Iron Maiden's No Prayer for the Dying album. They had become estranged in 2018, most likely due to the stress of Bruce always being away, touring with Maiden because of their heavy tour schedules

His son, Austin, who fronts his own band, As Lions, said he "hasn't even got words" for the events to follow after learning of his mother's death. She was found dead in their London apartment, at age 58. Austin also wrote something on Instagram. "By now a lot of you have seen the news. My mum has tragically passed away. I haven't even got words to say right now and I ask for privacy and respect for me and our family"

When the ambulance crew responded, they had been wearing protective suits, because of the Coronavirus outbreak, when they found her deceased at 10:00am. They had received a call about a person feeling "unwell". One neighbor, who wishes to remain anonymous, told The Sun "We thought it was some sort of coronavirus alert. They're a very private couple-it's tragic news."

Two ambulances had arrived on scene, one within two minutes. But Bowden had been pronounced dead on arrival. An interesting note about her is that she is American by birth. The veteran Iron Maiden vocalist, 61 and his wife, 58, share three kids together over the 29 years they had been married-son Austin, 29, son Griffin, 27 and daughter Kia, 28. The couple had parted ways in 2018. It was discovered that Dickinson had relocated to Paris after getting into a relationship with a fitness teacher named Leana Dolci, who is said to be in her 40s. After the news of their relationship became public, a friend of hers had told The Sun "Leana has always been a huge Iron Maiden fan, following them around for nearly 10 years."

Apparently Bruce has been trying to learn French, but it is unnecessary since Leana speaks English almost perfectly. Bruce's singing career had come to a temporary halt in 2015 when he was diagnosed with stage three throat cancer after a discovery of two malignant tumors on his tongue

After going through nine weeks of chemotherapy and thirty three sessions of radiation, Paddy helped nurse him back to health. During that time, fellow Iron Maiden members said all touring would be more or less postponed until their singer was back to full strength

He wrote about his battle with cancer in his 2017 autobiography What Does This Button Do? In the book, he has kept former wives and children out of the book only to protect their privacy. During a BBC Radio 2 interview, he said "There's no need for it, really. And I think there's a belief that nastiness somehow sells books. And I'm not sure, one, that it does, and two that it's particularly the sort of book I would want to be a part of. So I made a decision at the time that, in amongst not being horrid to people, cause there's no point, at the same time, I thought well, I also don't want to tell confidences about other people's lives."

Bruce was married to his college sweetheart Jane for four years beginning in 1983, but had no children with her. He met Paddy Bowden in 1988, but married in 1990 after dating for two years. Not surprisingly, Bruce's sons Austin and Griffin have followed their father's footsteps into the music world. Austin is a highly successful singer with his own band, As Lions. Griffin is the singer for a metalcore band called SHVPES

On the music front, he told Argentina's Clarin Magazine that he would be releasing another solo album in 2020

My opinion on that-YES!! Woohoo!!! Something to make 2020 at least a little better! His solo stuff is awesome!!