FKA Twigs revealed in a new interview that she’s really just a country girl at heart, who thinks about buying a house and having babies, shocking fans who thought she was somehow above the ordinary banalities of life. But that’s not the worst of it.
There mere mention of the b-word (babies) is fueling a tabloid frenzy that is likely to go on for years.
Lower flying Web sites are already posting stories that Twigs wants to “get married and have children with Robert Pattinson.” But that’s not what she said, and what she did say wasn’t in the context of getting married and having babies.
Still, she’s probably condemned herself for years to come to an unending cycle of sensational tabloid reports that she’s pregnant, now that she’s opened the door to baby talk. Sort of like Jennifer Aniston, or Angelina Jolie.
But the fact is she never mentioned Pattinson or marriage during her interview with Paper magazine. And, it’s a big stretch to put the two together.
The subject came up while Twigs was explaining her relationship with her fans. She actually hates the term. “I’m not affected by what fans would think, or by people critiquing what I do,” she said.
“Who are you doing it for, if not fans?” she was asked.
“For my kids, probably,” she replied, and not in “the Michael Jackson-at-the-Super Bowl sense.”
She explained:
“Not the children of the world; I mean the children that I haven’t had yet. [pats her stomach] I’m quite traditional. You know that saying, ‘You can take the girl out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the girl?’
“I grew up in Gloucestershire, and there’s a certain format that people fit into. And I’m actually quite happy with that format.
“I’m quite happy to say, ‘Go to school, work hard on your GCSEs, do your A-Levels, get married, have children. Send your kids to a nice school. Make sure you’re in the right catchment area.’”
In fact, she carries the analogy a step further by comparing herself to a car salesman.
“Imagine if I said to a car salesman, ‘Why are you doing that?’ [They’d say] ’cause I want to work hard, and I want to have a nice life, and when I have kids, I want to be able to buy a house.’ It’s still the same values.” she said.
The interviewer-like most of her “fans” will probably react-seems taken aback. “You’re looking at me like I’m mad,” she says.
“I don’t think you’re mad. I’m surprised though… Because your art seems to raise questions beyond yourself,” the interviewer replies.
She adds:
“The thing is, I’m not a heavy person. Imagine it’s this simple: someone is really good at fixing cars, and you’re going to quiz them about how they fix a car. They’d be, like, [mimicking a Dickensian urchin] “Cor, I dunno, really. Me dad taught me this when I was a kid and then I got my first motor when I was 15…’ That is literally how it is for me. Which isn’t to say I don’t take great care over what I do.
I know what I’m good at and I know what I need to get better at. But I don’t think in terms of a movement.”
Twigs is nothing, if not a bundle of contradictions. But you won’t know that from the avalanche of tabloid headlines that are sure to follow. All you’ll know is she wants to have babies with her “Twilight ” hottie.
Keith Girard has four decades of experience as an award-winning reporter, editor-in-chief, and senior media executive. Keith’s career began in Washington, D.C., where he was a reporter for The Washington Post and a contributing editor for Regardie’s and Washingtonian magazines. He also worked as a writer/producer in CNN’s Washington Bureau and has written non-fiction books on the U.S. Marines in the Gulf War and Donald Trump and two novels, “The Heidelberg Conundrum” and “The Curse of Northam Bay.”