BEE GEES icon Robin Gibb never got over the death of his twin brother Maurice and suffered recurring dreams in which they would laugh and joke together as a band.

In a rare interview his widow Dwina reveals Robin would wake up from these dreams “upset and haunted” by grief.

Maurice, a key part of one of the best-selling pop groups of all time, died suddenly from heart failure ahead of emergency surgery in 2003, aged just 53.

Dwina says of her late husband: “He didn’t like to dream because of the pain. Dreams were always painful.”

Robin died from liver complications in 2012 after a battle with cancer. He was 62.

His widow has been writing his autobiography based on hours of taped conversations she recorded with him in 2008 before his illness.

Some of the biggest names in the music industry, including Sir Paul McCartney, Dolly Parton and Abba’s Bjorn Ulvaeus have contributed quotes and anecdotes.

Its publication set to coincide with a new film on the Saturday Night Fever stars.

Dwina revealed how Maurice’s death made Robin want to create a record of his life, asking his wife – a talented artist and writer – to take down his memoir.

In her exclusive interview with the Sunday Express Dwina said the treasured tapes of their intimate conversations have been painstakingly transcribed.

They were recorded in the magnificent 13th-century mansion the couple shared in Thame, Oxfordshire, and give a deeply personal portrait of one of pop’s most enigmatic voices.

“I questioned him about all different kinds of things and we taped it, taped it all,” said Dwina.

The Bee Gees – Robin, Maurice and elder brother Barry, 78 – formed in the 1950s and went on to become one of the best-selling acts of all time.

Their hits include Stayin’ Alive and How Deep Is Your Love. The band sold more than 220 million records and sit behind only Lennon and McCartney in US Billboard chart history. Together they wrote and recorded UK No1 hit singles over five consecutive decades.

But despite their success, the brothers were hit by tragedy, younger brother Andy died in 1988, aged 30, from a heart condition. They wrote the song Wish You Were Here and dedicated it to Andy.

To then lose his twin Maurice was especially difficult for Robin. Dwina says: “It was like losing part of himself. They were together throughout their childhood. They were working together, day and night.

“I can only imagine Barry’s deep pain of losing all of his brothers.”

She adds: “Robin never got over Maurice. He’d dream. And he had a recurring dream all the time where he and Barry would be going into a room with Maurice and they’d all be joking and laughing and stuff.

“Then it was time for him and Barry to leave, and Maurice wanted to come but he couldn’t. It broke Robin’s heart. Yeah, he’d get upset – he’d come and find me, wherever I was and he would cry.”

Surrounded by memorabilia from her husband’s life, Dwina says, Robin wanted to tell his story in his own words.

“He asked me to interview him. He knew I liked to write, so he’d say, ‘Ask me about my childhood in the Isle of Man, Manchester and Australia.’

“So I did. We talked for hours – sometimes we used a tiny tape recorder, sometimes he’d just scribble ideas on anything he could find.”

Dwina, 72, met Robin at the peak of the phenomenon that was Saturday Night Fever, at a time when the brothers had taken a step back from the limelight writing a string of hits for Barbra Streisand, Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross, Kenny Rogers with Dolly Parton and Celine Dion.

Celine and Gloria Estefan have contributed to the posthumous memoir to be published next year. Dwina was particularly touched when Sir Paul McCartney took the time to call her and share his memories of Robin, as she was when Sir Elton John paid a heartfelt tribute to him.

John Lennon was so fond of Robin that he used a promotional tour for Imagine to highlight Robin’s Reign – his first solo album.

John, who used to call him “little Gibby”, made him smile when he held up Robin’s album instead of his own.

Away from the spotlight, Robin was a sensitive man who controlled his stage fright by performing to just one person in the audience.

“If he came into a room and there were more than 20 people there, he would disappear up the stairs,” said Dwina. “But put him in front of thousands and he was very casual. He would lie there and read the newspaper minutes before going on stage, as though it were nothing.

“I said, ‘You don’t want to be in a room with 20 people but you can perform in front of thousands?’ ‘Yes,’ he said. “But I’m only singing to one person at the back.”

She adds he was also a prolific composer: “It was mischief, just living with him. He would write at night and sometimes I’d be asleep and I’d wake up and hear him.

“It was like an angel singing. It was just beautiful hearing his voice. He was always working and having fun. He was always listening to things, like church bells. He could hear the harmonies within and he’d just make a song out of it.”

I Started A Joke, one of the band’s most revered songs, was composed on a flight to Germany, she revealed.

“He just heard the engine of the plane, and it was one of those old engines. And he heard the song – he actually heard it – and he wrote it on the boarding pass, and then worked on it with his brothers. They all worked like that.”

Dwina adds: “He just wrote on anything, really. Oh my goodness. I still find books upstairs and you take off the paper covers and he’s written on the inside of them, or on the backs.

“He’d write scores and lyrics, notes of things he wanted to do. He heard harmony in everything. He’d hear a rhythm in the clatter of spoons or footsteps on stones. It was like music poured through him.”

She reveals his son Robin John, known as RJ, chose I Started A Joke to play when he placed his phone on his father’s chest in the moments after he passed away.

Dwina and RJ, along with his other children Spencer and Melissa, were at his bedside.

Her artwork had brought them together, as Robin asked to meet Dwina after seeing some of her paintings.

She has used her talent to design The Vedic Tarot – a new deck of 81 cards combining ancient Eastern philosophy with Western spirituality and symbolism.

“These cards are not just tools, they’re a bridge between the seen and unseen, offering clarity and empowerment”, she explained.

“I was looking at the Tarot and trying to figure out what they were really about. Then I worked out the elements – earth, air, fire and water – that it’s all to do with the emotions, intellect, willpower, and the material and spiritual world.”

Robin quietly shared her interest: “When we first met, we had a little mirror and I put the Lovers card on it.

“When he was at home, he had it beside his bed.”

Dwina’s deck comes as a younger audience is discovering Tarot’s appeal through TikTok, recently described as the most unlikely trend of 2025 for Gen Z.

Fans can explore more of Robin’s story at the Thame Museum, which has a dedicated exhibition space in his honour.

Dwina has been instrumental in the development of The Robin Gibb Gallery which includes rare memorabilia, personal artefacts and previously unseen footage celebrating his musical legacy. Since its opening in 2022 it has drawn visitors from across the globe. For more details visit thamemuseum.org

The Vedic Tarot by Dwina Murphy Gibb is published byREDFeather /Schiffer. For more information visit: redfeathermbs.com

Dwina Gibb described the uncanny moment she first saw her future husband, Bee Gees star Robin Gibb — not in person, but on a black-and-white television set in Northern Ireland when she was still a teenager.
But what drew her attention to him wasn’t just his voice or looks — it was a flash of mischief.
“I was about 14. I was combing my hair in the mirror, and I could see the television through it. My sister was watching The Lulu Show, and the brothers were on. She asked me if I could marry one, which one would it be. Barry was singing, Maurice was there. And then suddenly Robin jumped, as if Maurice had pinched him. I said, ‘I’d marry him because he’s got a good sense of humour.’ And then I forgot all about it. Completely forgot.”
Fourteen years later, she met him. “My cousin, an ex-policeman, was looking after Robin at the time. I hadn’t seen Ken in about ten years. He came to visit me when I was at art school in London and had some of my art in his car. When Robin saw it he asked to meet me.”
From that point, their lives became entwined. “We didn’t have time limits on each other,” she said. “If he was doing something at night, or I was painting at night — we just had freedom. I liked to work at night, and Robin was never ready to go into the studio until after two o’clock in the afternoon.”
Their creative rhythms aligned effortlessly. “He’d go into the studio, and I’d be finishing up a painting. There was no ego, no pressure. We just gave each other space.”
Dwina barely left his side when Robin was hospitalised with cancer: “When we were at the hospital, I was living there practically. He didn’t want me to leave the room. So I stayed. There was no point in coming home.”
During that time, Robin continued working with his son, RJ, also a musician. “He and RJ produced the Titanic Requiem together. Robin couldn’t always manage, but even when he was really ill, he wanted to get everything done.”
One song in particular stayed with Dwina. “‘Don’t Cry Alone’. It was meant to be about the Titanic, but I understood it as something for me too. He must have known it would be his requiem really.”
Robin never spoke about final things. “He was always optimistic. If something was finished, he’d just move on. The next thing. Moving forward.”
Yet what remains is a profound closeness. “We were very close. We did everything together. We were twin souls.`’