Robert Smith (musician) - Relationship With Mary Poole

Relationship With Mary Poole

Smith is married to his long-time partner Mary Theresa Poole (b. 3 October 1958), whom he met in drama class at St. Wilfrid's when he was 14. The couple shared their first dance together to David Bowie's Life On Mars?, and Smith has said that if he could go back and repeat something he'd done in the past, it would be "my first dance with Mary." The couple also appear dancing in 1988's video to Just Like Heaven, a song partly inspired by a night at Beachy Head fifteen years earlier when Mary kissed Smith and he fainted. Photographs of Mary taken by Smith while on holiday in Scotland during the early 1980s appear on the record sleeves for the Cure singles Charlotte Sometimes and Pictures of You. Smith has also said that his nickname for Mary is "M", and that the Cure song by that name from 1980's Seventeen Seconds album was "about a girl…" Asked about the recurrent theme of 'boy-girl' relationships in the album's lyrics, Robert said that their songs were "always about the same girls. I've been in love with Mary for five years ... If I wasn't in love, being in a group would be an ideal existence but, for me, it's getting more and more difficult, really schizophrenic ... So many times I've seemed to have a choice between keeping Mary or keeping the group". Smith later revealed that early in his musical career, Mary had not always shared his confidence and vision for The Cure's future, which was a significant motivating factor to his ensuring that the band were successful.

In 1984, Smith described Mary as "my best friend. She's got black hair and very striking looks. In fact she looks like Betty Boop." It has been reported by the Daily Express that Mary used to be a model, and worked as a nurse with intellectually handicapped children, but as The Cure became more financially successful during the mid 1980s Mary gave up her day job so that the couple would not have to spend so much time apart. However, he has also claimed on different occasions that Mary was a stripper, and an Olympic runner. Smith stated more than once that he was regarded within the couple as Mary's boyfriend, rather than Mary as Smith's girlfriend. Smith told The Face that he had once left a video camera running in their home "and after a couple of hours you forget that it's on and I was quite horrified at the amount of rubbish we say to each other. It's like listening to mental people … I feel more natural in the company of people who are mentally unbalanced because you're always more alert, wondering what they're going to do next..." He claimed that Mary "used to dress as a witch to scare little children", that she sometimes dressed up as Robert Smith in his pyjamas, and that he could never take people home "because I never know who is going to answer the door". While The Cure were recording the Wish album at Shipton Manor, Oxfordshire between 1991 and 1992, among the objects pinned to the wall was "Mary's Manor Mad Chart", listing seventeen members of the Manor's staff and residents (including The Cure and their entourage) "in order of instability". Mary was ranked in second place, after a woman named Louise who worked in the kitchen. "We all voted," said Smith, "and we had an award night. It was very moving." He has also said

Robert Smith and Mary Poole were married on 13 August 1988, at Worth Abbey, Sussex. Cure bassist Simon Gallup was Smith's best man, and 150 guests attended the service. Smith composed The Cure's "Lovesong" as a wedding present for Mary, and told fans that his favourite wedding gift was a platinum heart from Mary. Smith has said that the couple made the decision early in their relationship not to have children, and maintains that he is too irresponsible and erratic to be a father. He has used the analogy of his songs as his babies:

In July 2012, Italian magazine XL reported that the couple now reside in Aldwick, West Sussex.