Mr & Mrs Willis ... a match made in Heaven; AS STAR'S HUSBAND

WHEN Cilla Black moved into her ten-bedroom home in Denham, Bucks, the house and the grounds were extensive enough to require full-time help.

This was easily afforded. Staff were hired. But there was one condition of employment. They must call her Mrs Willis.

She's had that title for 30 years. She and Bobby Willis never saw time as an enemy but an opportunity - together.

I spent more than a year researching a biography of Cilla Black and it was published last year with the title 'Bobby's Girl. It was totally appropriate - for that's what she will always be.

I have no doubt that whatever the future holds for them, she will have the courage to cope with whatever happens.

Both of them were brought up in a stoic, Liverpool environment where you did not complain - you put on a brave face.

Cilla has already started to do that and publicly attempt to disguise the grief that will privately be devastating her.

She will also be finding solace in her work. There have always been two crucial things in her life: Bobby and work.

For more than three decades she has 'lived' through her millions of fans. I believe their care for her will help her through any ordeal.

She uses an old joke to explain the support she gets from them: "We've got a big 'fridge in our house and when I open the door the light comes on and I start smiling."'

Also, having spoken to so many people around her, it is clear that she would find it an affront to Bobby's decades of work for her if she did not go on with the show.

It would also pain him if he thought his illness was stopping Cilla 'getting on.' That has been his life's work. He was never Cilla's Svengali. He is her supporter.

Mr and Mrs Robert Willis have beaten the statistics against marital longevity as well as showbusiness unions where the temptations and separations are more prevalent than in the Nine to Five life.

They have spent their lives like Siamese Twins: They have never spent a night apart other than for the births of their three sons since their wedding on January 25, 1969.

But what is extraordinary about their partnership is that they exclusively belong to each other.

Cilla's close friend Sir Paul McCartney lost his wife Linda to cancer. That couple's devotion to each other was complete. But there had been others in both their lives before they met.

Watch Bobby and Cilla together or talk to those who work with them and you know there is no one else either could turn to.

They love and trust each other. He finishes her sentences. She starts his. There are no other true confidantes. It's like telepathy.

They know what's right for each other. It's not one of those grand, 'Gone With The Wind romances but a wonderful, down-to-earth marriage, a union that eludes so many.

Despite their tremendous success they are so 'ordinary. Of course, they can afford lavish lifestyles but there's not much that is precious about them and so much that could be.

The great sadness you feel today concerns the loneliness that may follow. Cilla and Bobby do everything together.

Whatever she has appeared in over the years, Bobby has been there - from her first recording contract to 'Blind Date.' Bobby likes to watch Cilla from the control booth to check on everything from her hemline to her nail polish. He's a professional.

Cilla, as a teenager, made her chances but it was Bobby who helped and encouraged her to endorse them in such a way that turned her into Britain's No.1 female entertainer. "I don't think I would have lasted five minutes without Bobby," she said once.

He dealt his way around obstacles with tenacity and a tact which rarely discomforted anyone. This allowed Cilla to get one with performing. And throughout all my research, there was never a bad or cruel word about Bobby Willis.

But Mr and Mrs Willis are never at home to the public. They have turned down scores of offers from Hello!-style magazines for photographic snoops around their house.

Bobby was adamant that this is their totally private time. Cilla could put her feet up and watch Coronation Street in peace. They could talk quietly over a glass of champagne. They rarely entertain at home.

During the working week, staff clean the house from top to bottom. At weekends, while Bobby happily potters around, Cilla gets out the Hoover.

While those who inherit wealth can often live with the dust, those who earn it usually have to polish. Cilla is a polisher.

They bought an apartment in Barbados and created their own nest. Bobby's plan was to create an escape from their hectic schedules - it was like starting all over again.

All his life, it seems, Bobby has looked after Cilla and his budgies. He usually has 20 or 30 budgies at home and a dozen cockateels.

The man who could have been a Top Ten singer or songwriter has spent his life looking after his birds - Cilla and the budgies.

Their closeness - and humour -- was clear at a charity dinner at which Princess Diana was the guest of honour.

Cilla, a huge Royal fan, was buzzing with excitement, Bobby his usual calm self. Accidentally, as they had their Royal encounter, Bobby's hand brushed against Diana's arm. Cilla stared at him, apparently mortified.

Then she turned to the next person in the line and said: '"He's got class. He would never have dreamed of putting his hand on her bum."'

The two most important influences on Cilla's life have been Bobby and her mother Priscilla - 'Big Cilla' - who was 84 when she died three years ago.

Despite her success Cilla never lost the need for the approval of the mother she loved so deeply. But she did a show the day her mother died. She said: "I wasn't being brave. I was being very much a coward. I was putting it off."

Now, she will be missing her mother more than ever. Friends I have spoken to say that in her quieter moments she still grieves for her mother and regards her passing as an enormous chasm in her life.

For she really was - other than Bobby - the only person she could truly talk to.

They both had tough childhoods. Bobby's mother died when he was 11 - his brother Ronnie, from cancer, eight months later.

Like all families they have stared death in the face and dealt with it. After her father John's sudden death in 1972, Cilla's mother coped admirably.

There is a pride among many of Cilla and Bobby's generation of dealing with horrible adversity with dignity and I am certain that is what will be evident in the time ahead.

Cilla and Bobby would think they would be letting each other down if they did anything different.

And they have not disappointed each other for many, many years. They will not start now.

Copyright 1999 MGN LTD
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