Grammy Award-winning singer Barry Manilow secretly married his longtime manager Garry Kief because he was afraid of fans finding out he is gay.
The wedding was part of a private ceremony last April at the performer's home in Palm Springs,
according to the National Enquirer, but Manilow, 71, and Kief, 66, didn't file formal paperwork in California.
The guest list of about 50 people included close friend Suzanne Somers as his "best man" and Marc Hulett, Manilow's assistant, who performed the "commitment ceremony."
"Barry is paranoid that his fans would not approve of him being gay, when in reality, many have suspected it for years – and most wouldn't care," one source told the National Enquirer. "They would be happy for him."
The source told the gossip tabloid that Manilow, whose biggest hits in the 1970s included "I Write the Songs," "Mandy," "Copacabana," and his decision to get married caught many of their friends by surprise.
"Barry has lived a very secretive life and the wedding was no different," the source told the National Enquirer. "Barry and Garry did not tell friends or family that the occasion was their wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and consummated their lifelong love affair."
Manilow told
Billboard magazine in February that his current tour that wraps up 27 dates on June 17 in New York City will be his last.
"It doesn't mean I'm retiring or anything," Manilow told the music trade magazine. "I'll do shows and I'll promote albums if I make any more, but no more big tours. That's it. It's too much packing. It's 40 years – more than that, really – of packing and waiting for room service."
"People think it's glamorous, but glamorous is the last word I would use for this job. You don't see anything; you see the inside of your hotel room, you see the inside of a car, you see the inside of your dressing room and then you're gone. I haven't gone sightseeing, ever. It's a job," said Manilow.
Manilow had started touring again in 2012 after taking a brief break for surgery to re-attach muscles to his hip,
reported Rolling Stone magazine.
"Everybody thinks I had some sort of a hip replacement; that wasn't it," Manilow said about the operation in 2011. "I had ripped the muscles off my hip on both sides and they had to pull them back and nail them back into my hips."
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