Shirley Bassey - Personal Life

Personal Life

Bassey has been married twice, her husbands being:

• Kenneth Hume (died 1967), a gay film producer, whom she married in 1961. The couple separated in 1964 and divorced in 1965, in the wake of the singer's affair with actor Peter Finch. Bassey then announced to the press that she and Finch would not be marrying, telling the press, "It simply wouldn't work out. Just now I am not ready for marriage to anyone. I feel I have to be free". A year later, Hume sued the actor and another man, John McAuliffe, for being "indiscreet" with the singer. Both Finch and McAuliffe were cited as co-respondents in the Hume-Bassey divorce. For her part, Bassey was named as co-respondent in 1965 when Finch's wife, South African actress Yolande Turner, divorced the actor.

• Sergio Novak, the assistant manager of the Excelsior Hotel in Rome, Italy. Bassey and Novak were married from 1968 until they divorced in 1979. Novak served as Bassey's manager throughout this time. With Novak she adopted her grand-nephew, Mark.

The fathers of Bassey's two daughters, Sharon Bassey (aka Sharon Novak, born 1954) and Samantha Bassey (aka Samantha Novak, born 1963), are unknown. However, Bassey's first husband suggested that Samantha, born during the couple's marriage, was the result of an affair between Bassey and Peter Finch. In 1965, according to an article in Jet, "There is a big dispute in London over who is the father of tempestuous singer Shirley Bassey's baby. Although one-time boy friend English actor Peter Finch agreed that the child may not belong to Shirley's divorced husband, Kenneth Hume, Finch insists she does not belong to him ... "

In 1985, Samantha Novak, age 21, was found dead in the River Avon in Bristol, England. Bassey has always maintained that the death of her daughter was not a suicide. On 24 March 2010, Avon and Somerset Police confirmed they were undertaking fresh inquiries into the death of Novak, and specifically claims that the convicted killer Michael Moffat was involved in her death. However, in October 2010 it was reported that the investigation came to an end and concluded that there "is no evidence of any criminal act involved" in Novak's death.

Bassey's granddaughter Tatjana Novak-Kimsey, daughter of the singer's one-time estranged son, Mark Novak, was a contestant on The X Factor. (In a 2009 interview, Bassey stated that she and her son had reconciled.)

Bassey has four grandsons through her daughter, Sharon Novak.

Bassey currently resides in Monte Carlo.