Not Your Average Pop Star Spouse

What kind of woman attracts a smart, gifted, sexy, and wealthy musician? In Sting's case, a woman with a similar mind, politics, and even a little sex appeal. In this age of rock star-fashion model matrimony, Sting chose a woman who, although as svelte and comely as a runway model, is a lot more than that.

Photo courtesy The Rainforest Foundation UK.

For starters, she's an actress, appearing in at least seven movies (including starring as herself, in the rockumentary Bring on the Night and as Doris the boozy housekeeper in The Grotesque, also known as Gentlemen Don't Eat Poets and Grave Indiscretion), both opposite Sting. She's also a film producer and director, cookbook co-author and co-founder of The Rainforest Foundation. She also happens to be the mother of four children.

Trudie Styler, one of three daughters, was born to a modest family near Birmingham, England. She reportedly ran away from home at 17 to pursue an acting career in Stratford-upon-Avon and was hired by a theatrical family needing an au pair. Later, while living in London and working at "demeaning" jobs in between acting gigs, she smiled at the handsome neighbor who happened to be the lead singer for a rock band called The Police. Over the next few years, as Sting's marriage declined, the couple began a highly publicized affair.

"Many hours were spent thinking, 'What have we done?'" Trudie told VH1's "Behind the Music." Their "affair" ended, over a decade later and at the request of their children, in matrimony.

"Is it true I'm a bastard?" Jake reportedly asked his mother, after being teased at school. "No," she quipped, "that's your father." Sting and Trudie married on 21 August 1992, and it was at their reception that The Police, during an alcohol-induced mini-concert, stood on the same stage together.

Sting and Trudie bought their dream house in 1991, after Trudie confesses she was "captivated by the romance of it all" and convinced her soon-to-be husband to buy the estate called Lake House, near Stonehenge in England. Her husband was on tour when she first saw the house. "I must have been very persuasive when I spoke to Sting that day," Trudie wrote, "or maybe he could sense my certainty. But whatever it was that convinced him, with a tremendous leap of faith he agreed, and our lives were changed forever." The couple made a conscious decision to turn the property into a self-sustaining organic farm. They now have more than 60 acres of fruits and vegetables, four types of livestock and facilities for making honey and cheese.

Leggy and brainy. Photo courtesy Us Magazine.

Trudie and family chef Joseph Sponzo co-authored Lake House Cookbook, which is filled with text written by Trudie, recipes developed by Sponzo, and lots of mouth-watering photographs.

"I feel very angry that consumers just aren't informed of the poisonous pesticides that are put into our soil," Trudie told the Associated Press. "[They] have a negative effect on the animals and environment but also on our children." The organic community is taking notice of her. The new magazine Organic Style featured Trudie in a Q&A in their premiere edition (on newsstands now). She told the magazine that she feels most organic "in bed, of course."

In addition to writing cookbooks, producing films (such as the dark comedy "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels"), as well as acting and directing, Trudie also co-founded The Rainforest Foundation (see my previous article entitled "Saving the Rainforest") and coordinates the foundation's annual mammoth Carnegie Hall fund-raiser. Yet at the end of a busy day, she says her favorite way to unwind is to hang out with her kids.

Sting says Trudie is the only person he'll seriously listen to when it comes to his work, so her opinion carries a lot of weight with him. At least one report states that it was Trudie who convinced him to take on the rain forest cause. Inspired by Trudie's work on a documentary about male transvestite prostitution in Brazil ("Boys from Brazil"), Sting wrote the tongue-in-cheek "Tomorrow We'll See." And although Sting admitted on the Rosie O'Donnell show (a week after Trudie made an appearance to publicize Lake House Cookbook) that Trudie almost never cooks, he said that when she does foray into the kitchen, he likes her meals best, "because she cooks them with love."

Resources

• Internet Movie Database - for a listing of films and TV shows Trudie has either acted in, directed, or produced.

• The Rainforest Foundation - Visit either the UK or the US/International sites for info on how the charity began, the work they do, and items for sale.

• Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Borders - Just three of the outlets where you can read reviews and purchase copies of Lake House Cookbook.

• Organic Style Magazine - Although Trudie's interview does not appear online, this start-up site allows you to subscribe to this new periodical.