“My mother brought me up to believe in myself,” she told the BBC last year.
“I was a very shy little girl growing up in school, wouldn’t say ‘boobah’ to a goose, and I was very, very shy.
“But I’ve overcome that, because I love singing.”
Bonnie’s love for the industry was still clear in that interview, and she had just released a new single Yes I Can, a song about finding inner strength and believing in yourself.
Reports suggest that Bonnie and her husband, Robert Sullivan, own 22 homes worldwide, though they mainly split their time between Portugal and their home in Mumbles, Swansea.
Despite coming from a big, musical family, Tyler and Sullivan never had children.
She previously told BBC Sounds: “I absolutely adore children.
“You know when most people get on a plane and they avoid children like the plague, don’t they? Not me. I’m like, ‘can I sit here’?
“I did have a miscarriage when I was 40, I left it too late, you know? I wish I had started earlier, but my career took over and it was always, ‘next year, next year’.
“And then next year didn’t come until I was 39.”
After Tyler miscarried, she threw herself into work.
“We did try for another couple of years, but… we’re fine, we’re happy.”
She conquered the music world, and loved Europe – but Bonnie Tyler will always be remembered as the Welsh star who wasn’t holding out for a hero, but became one to millions herself.
