Is there a Gibb family curse?

GREGORY KATZ

Associated Press

LONDON

Her sons were blessed with musical gifts that brought riches and fame. On Monday, Barbara Gibb was living a parent’s ultimate nightmare — preparing, for the third time, to lay a child to rest.

Her son Robin Gibb — a Bee Gees founder known for his astonishing vocals and songwriting skills — died Sunday after a long battle with cancer at age 62.

Earlier, she had lost her sons Andy Gibb, a pop idol who died in 1988 at age 30 from a heart ailment, and Maurice Gibb, a member of the Bee Gees and Robin’s twin, who died in 2003 of acute intestinal problems.

Several months before his death, Robin Gibb told a British newspaper that he sometimes wondered if the family is paying a “karmic price” for the Bee Gee’s mind-blowing success. And friends of Barbara Gibb’s have been quoted as saying she believes the family may be cursed.

Before illness struck, the Gibb family enjoyed remarkably good fortune. The boys were raised in challenging economic circumstances but were exposed to music at an early age because their father was a bandleader and a drummer and their mother had experience as a singer.

They started singing professionally as teenagers, moving within a few short years to prominence first in Australia, then throughout the world.

But the apparent ease of this meteoric rise was followed by later tragedy.

Both Robin and Maurice — the twins — suffered debilitating intestinal problems that led to their premature deaths. Robin suffered from colon cancer and other digestive ailments. He became gaunt even before his cancer diagnosis.

Of the four boys Barbara Gibb raised in England and Australia before they became global stars, only Barry, the eldest, is still alive. She also has a daughter living in Australia who has stayed out of the public eye.