Rock duo pretended to be siblings for years but were | UK News

One of the most important rock bands of the noughties spent many years insisting they were siblings, when in actuality they were married all alongside. The White Stripes, who launched their first studio album in 1999 earlier than touchdown a hit single Seven Nation Army in 2003, were comprised of duo Jack White and Meg White. For years, the pair insisted they were siblings.

First forming the band in Detroit, Michigan, Jack and Meg met on the Memphis Smoke restaurant after they were each in high faculty, the place she labored and the place he participated in open mic nights. Jack’s title then was Jack Gillis, and he insisted Meg was his sister.

He referred to her as his “big sister” in interviews, and when rumours began to swirl that the pair were in truth husband and spouse, he doubled down on his feedback. Jack informed NME: “We’re brother and sister. Someone started a rumour about how we used to be married and we played along with it. That was a bad idea, we get asked this all the time now.”

Later, the reality got here out – Jack and Meg’s “smouldering eye contact” gave them away to eagle-eyed followers. Their marriage certificates ended up being printed, main Jack to insist in 2002: “We’ve given up. People can say whatever they want at this point. It never mattered to us. We were never trying to create this.”

But additional particulars emerged. It seems Jack and Meg had already divorced earlier than the release of Seven Nation Army, and used the lie to make themselves appear more fascinating.

Eventually, Jack admitted: “I want you to imagine if we had presented ourselves in another fashion, that people might have thought was the truth. How would we have been perceived, right off the bat? When you see a band that is two pieces, husband and wife, boyfriend and girlfriend, you think. ‘Oh, I see…’ When they’re brother and sister, you go, ‘Oh, that’s interesting.’”

He went on: “You care more about the music, not the relationship – whether they’re trying to save their relationship by being in a band.” Fan theories have additionally steered he wished to defend Meg from rumours she was “just the frontman’s ex”.

The band referred to as it quits in 2011, and Jack has now settled down together with his third spouse Olivia Jean, who he married in 2022. Meg married Jackson Smith in 2009 but they divorced in 2013.