BEE GEES star ROBIN GIBB has compared his lack of involvement in his children's lives to a bereavement.
The singer was banned from seeing his two children following the breakdown of his first marriage in Molly Hullis in 1980.
And the star - who is teaming up with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to launch Parent Know How, a campaign for absent fathers - compared his lack of access to a bereavement.
He says, "I felt as if I was on the verge of madness.
"It was distressing and very traumatic because I had no contact whatsoever. There was no response to my calls, no acknowledgement of my gifts, no letters. I felt dejected, rejected, worthless. Nobody was telling me anything about my kids.
"You can achieve great things in life professionally, but if your children are being kept away from you, you feel empty. Emotionally, mentally and spiritually I felt abandoned.
"I had some of my blackest moments during those lost years when my children became strangers to me. I think the bleakness I felt was matched only when my twin brother Maurice died.'
Maurice Gibb died from complications caused by a burst intestine in 2003.
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