Phil Collins reveals he nearly died in 2024: 'My organs stopped working – people came to say goodbye'

The collapse

Phil Collins was admitted to a Swiss hospital in November 2023 after his alcohol consumption spiralled out of control. He was discharged shortly before Christmas, but within weeks he was back in intensive care. What followed was a seven-month stay during which his body began to shut down. "My kidneys failed, my organs just stopped working. People came to say goodbye," Collins told the Sunday Times. He was unconscious throughout the worst of it and has no memory of the visitors.

Family at the bedside

His manager, who has worked with him for 50 years, called his five children to the hospital. Joely, Simon, Lily, Nicholas and Matthew gathered as doctors and relatives discussed whether to continue life-support measures. "There were a few decisions to be made, along the lines of: do we keep Phil on life support?" Collins recalled. His daughter Lily, the actress known for Emily in Paris, sat beside him crying.

I never thought I would get these moments.

Collins said the whole family later reunited at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in London after his discharge. He described the episode as a narrow escape: "I had great luck to have survived that."

The drinking

Collins traced the crisis to an alcohol addiction that he did not recognise at the time. "I drank wine when I woke up. That was what I wanted for breakfast, a glass of wine," he said. He added that because he did not drink late into the night, he was unaware he had a problem. His 2016 autobiography Not Dead Yet had already touched on heavy drinking, linking it to a turbulent private life and a back injury. After his 2006 divorce from Swiss national Orianne Cevey, he wrote of lying alone staring at the grey Swiss sky with only "Johnnie Walker and Grey Goose" for company. The couple reunited in 2016 but split again after a few years in an acrimonious legal battle.

Life after survival

Collins has not touched alcohol since leaving hospital. The damage, however, is permanent. His pancreas is scarred, his kidneys barely function, and nerve damage has ended his ability to play the drums. He relies on crutches to walk and has a live-in nurse who ensures he takes his medication correctly. "Everything that could go wrong with me has gone wrong," he said earlier this year. Despite the physical toll, he expressed gratitude for simply being alive.

Love and solitude

Now 75, Collins lives alone in his home above Lake Geneva near Féchy. He admitted he would like a relationship again. "I would like to fall in love again. I would like a relationship. Would like to kiss someone, for example. So very simple things." But he doubts it will happen. "I think it's probably too late. I'm not a very sociable person. I don't go out." The man who once sold over 100 million albums said music has receded, and what matters now are the ordinary moments he almost lost.