Five Star’s Lorraine Pearson lifts the lid on band’s blazing rows and her tryst with Eddie Murphy – Mirror Online

Singer, who was diagnosed with breast cancer, says she no longer speaks to “diva” sister Denise who she went through the rollercoaster ride of fame with

Five Star’s Lorraine Pearson lifts the lid on band’s blazing rows and her tryst with Eddie Murphy

They were the British Jackson 5 – the clean-living, all-singing, all-dancing family pop group who took the 1980s charts by storm.

On the surface Five Star had it all – a mansion with its own recording studio, chauffeur-driven limos, adoring fans and a Brit award for Best British Group.

But today, as the 35th anniversary of their first single looms, singer Lorraine Pearson claims the reality was stolen childhoods, with few friends, a gruelling schedule and living in a constant family bubble, which created blazing rows.

Having turned 50 last August and after a battle with breast cancer, Lorraine says she is no longer worried about protecting the family brand.

She reveals a feud with lead singer sister Denise, who appeared on BBC’s The Voice in 2012.

Image:
Redferns)

Redferns)

Lorraine says: “I haven’t spoken to Denise in three years. We don’t get on. She is very much a diva.

“I haven’t spoken to her since my dad died. Life is too short to be around people who you don’t like and who don’t like you. Denise is my sister and I love her, but I don’t like her very much.”

Five Star was the brainchild of Buster Pearson, and made up of his children Denise, Doris, Stedman, Delroy and Lorraine, who when the first single came out were aged 17, 15, 14, 13 and 11.

Buster, who died in 2012, had worked with Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett and set up a record company to turn his kids into stars – and his plan paid off.

From 1985 to 1988 they had four top 20 albums and 15 top 40 singles such as System Addict and Rain or Shine.

Image:
Hulton Archive)

Hulton Archive)

Although Lorraine loved performing with her siblings, their early stardom meant they missed normal childhoods.

She says: “In the early days it was hard. We’d be up at 2am, piled up with make-up getting in the back of our little white van, going into smoky little clubs.

“At one of our very first clubs my dad went to get us orange juice, I was about 14, and this guy came up with sachets of cocaine and told us to take them.

“My dad had said there were going to be drugs, and not to take anything off any strangers, so we just said ‘no thank you’.

“As teenagers we’d be in a limo and watching kids go to school. We didn’t have many friends. We missed going to parties, school trips. My parents were very protective. Friends could never come in.

“Being together, living together, working together was hard and it did cause a lot of arguments.

“Work was all we did. We did a tour, another album, another tour, TV shows. It was constant, the record companies want to make money out of you whilst you are young.”

At the height of their success the family from Romford, East London, bought Stone Court, a Berkshire mansion, and had a fleet of cars including Ferraris and Lamborghinis.

Loneliness drew Lorraine into an ill-fated romance with ­Hollywood star Eddie Murphy in 1988. “We were at our house and had nothing to do but to answer fan mail.

“I was depressed we didn’t have anyone else to talk to,” she says.

She went into the TV room where her brother Del was watching an Eddie Murphy stand-up show and she started laughing. So she wrote to Eddie thanking him for making her happy when she was so down.

Two weeks later, Eddie’s secretary called saying he wanted to talk to her.

“He asked would I mind if he flew to England and took me for dinner,” says Lorraine. “Within five days he was on one knee proposing.

“I was 21 and my heart was saying no but I said yes. We went out to a restaurant to celebrate and it was the worst night of my life. It was so quiet and I was freezing.

“Eddie said if you are cold don’t expect me to give you my jacket. My brother Del got up and put his jacket around my shoulders.”

Before Eddie, Lorraine had not even had a boyfriend. However, her dreams of love and marriage didn’t last long.

She says: “The day he proposed was the day it ended. It was 3am and he said to me it is time to go to the hotel, so I said, ‘I’ll see you tomorrow’. But he said, ‘We’re engaged – you’re coming with me’.

“I just said, ‘My parents didn’t raise me that way – we aren’t married yet’. So he asked for his ring back. I just took it off calmly.

“My dad said you have to go and fix this, and I just said, ‘If you want to marry him, you marry him. I’m not’.”

With Five Star audiences ­dwindling, and Lorraine’s relationship with Denise at breaking point, she quit the group in 2001. Instead she got a job in a clothes shop – and found happiness.

“I made friends, I had a salary, it was very important to be ­independent,” Lorraine says. “I just thought being a legend is not going to pay the bills. I had to work and I loved it.”

She met her husband, CEO of a construction firm, in 1989. They married on Valentine’s Day 2000 with her sister, best friend and members of his family attending.

She worked as a receptionist, in a call centre and as a PA. And the couple fulfilled their dream of becoming parents 11 years ago after ­undergoing IVF ­treatment to have their daughter Nadege.

But her world was rocked in 2011 when she was ­diagnosed with breast cancer.

“We were planning to move to Qatar and we were packing up our house when I scratched under my arm and felt a lump. Tears came to my eyes – it was massive.”

Doctors told her she may not survive, and she chose to undergo a mastectomy, chemotherapy and take the drugs Herceptin and Tamoxifen.

“I was just thinking, ‘I’m going to die, so what is going to happen to my daughter?’,” she says.

“I just thought, ‘God didn’t give her to you to take you away, you have to survive this’.”

Lorraine has since been given the all-clear, which has given her the push that she needed to step back into the ­limelight.

She says: “I just thought it is time to dust off my ambitions and get back out there. I just felt it was the right time.”

She was horrified to learn Denise is performing as Five Star without her family.

Lorraine says: “I went online to find a picture of the group to show a friend and found out she had replaced us all. I was so disappointed and shocked.

“It’s embarrassing for people to buy tickets thinking it’s the original Five Star when it’s not.”

Denise denies this is the case and says: “We are keeping the Five Star spirit alive with four wonderful backing dancers, who have the highest regard for the Five Star legacy.

“The door is always open for any of the original members to come back. I made contact with my siblings prior to launching this next chapter.

“Mummy [Dolores Pearson] has given her blessing for me to share my gift as the voice of Five Star.”

Denise, who is performing at festivals and one-off shows, adds: “She’s even been involved in choosing the sequins for the shows!”