The 70-year-old Bee Gees singer has revealed how the disgraced former ‘Top of the Pops’ host – who was revealed to be responsible for numerous serious sexual assaults after his death in 2011 at the age of 84 – led him to meet the love of his life Linda, who he married in 1970.
Speaking on ‘Piers Morgan’s Life Stories’, the pop star revealed: “She was Miss Edinburgh. But there is a whole slew of stories behind all that. Some of them cannot be told.”
Piers subsequently asked Barry for further details about their romance, but the singer replied: “No, no because even the name would send a shudder through you.”
Then, Barry explained how Linda was “brought to London” from Scotland by the as-yet-unnamed person who introduced them.
However, Linda – who was sat in the audience during the filming of the episode – warned her husband not to name Savile, and shook her head and shouted “no” from her seat.
Barry said: “It does not bear [thinking about] but that’s how we met. It is 50 years this year to the day that we did our first ‘Top of the Pops’ and that was the day I met my wife.
“When we first saw each other I thought it was love at first sight. I thought then, ‘That is the woman I am going to spend the rest of my life with.’ It did not matter about showbusiness.”
Meanwhile, Barry has defended his close friend Sir Cliff Richard, who was investigated over historical sex abuse claims before being cleared in 2016.
He said: “It’s wrong to destroy someone’s life with accusations if it’s not conclusive. I don’t think anyone has the right to do that. Can you imagine someone saying that about you when it might have been 30 years ago and you can’t prove they were wrong or fight it?
“The public has a way of saying, ‘It must be true because someone said it.’ That’s the great danger in our culture today. Cliff is one of my closest friends and I’m astounded by it. I’m disappointed that people can go that far without having conclusive proof.”