EXCLUSIVE: 'I was 16, Frankie Valli was 39... he took good thing about a young virgin who beloved him': The Jersey Boy's lover lifts the lid off her 20-year affair and reveals he was merciless, controlling and uncaring in bed
- April Kirkwood idolized Frankie Valli from the time she was elderly seven
- April reveals in explosive MailOnline interview she had on-off affair with the three-times married Jersey boy for 20 years
- Jersey Boys, the film directed by Clint Eastwood, is released this week; April's book about her time with Frankie is due out in August
- 'We had intercourse in every single place - dressing rooms, resort rooms, excursion buses, the back seat of limos, you title it, that’s where we did it,' April says
- She remembers one time they made love and the singing legend rolled over, lit a cigarette and blew out smoke and uttered: ‘By the way, I think I’m going to marry my girlfriend'
- 'One day when Frankie couldn’t in finding me, he found my aunt Ginny and hit on her. He didn’t care'
- Frankie was not very refined, she says. 'If he may just f*** it or consume it, it was excellent for him'
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Frankie Valli’s existence story is about to be depicted on the big display screen in Clint Eastwood’s Jersey Boys, in line with the spoil hit play about Valli and the Four Seasons, who grew up on the streets of Newark and skyrocketed to transform one in all the best-selling groups of all time.
But while Frankie's upward thrust from the mean streets to superstardom is anticipated to be a huge hit, movie audiences might not be privy to Valli's darkest secrets and techniques.
Now, the long-time lover of the making a song legend, April Kirkwood, is breaking her silence about her 20-year relationship with Valli and his dark, menacing and imperious facet that few outside his inner circle ever knew, in a world unique interview with MailOnline.
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What an evening: April Kirkwood was 11 years old when she attended her second Franki Valli and the Four Seasons concert in Youngstown, Ohio. 'The first time I saw him, I was smitten,' she says. She was seven
Too little, too overdue: 'I notice I was a fool to have waited for him,' April says now. 'I by no means requested him to go away his spouse. I simply kept hoping that he'd come thru. I loved Frankie Valli, however I do not believe he knew what love was'
To at the present time, April, now 56, has brilliant recollections of her surprise as Valli casually delivered the news that he was getting married just seconds after they had loved an hard night of love-making in a sumptuous five-star resort room in Syracuse, New York.
The making a song legend rolled over, lit a cigarette and blew out smoke uttering to April: ‘By the way, I think I’m going to marry my female friend.’
Thirty 4 years later, tears brim in her eyes.
‘It made me really feel horrible, reasonable and grimy when he told me he was going to marry some other lady,’ she says. ‘It was so painful. I cherished Frankie, and I assumed he loved me. I believed in the future he’d make me his spouse.’
But the incident was indicative of all the years April spent as Frankie's lover.
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ShareApril is talking for the first time about her steamy courting with the Four Seasons singing star whose vintage hits include ‘Sherry,’ ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry,’ ‘Walk Like a Man,’ ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You,’ and ‘December 1963 (Oh, What A Night’).
The film Jersey Boys tells the story of the musical crew's upward thrust from obscurity in the tough and tumble community of New Jersey to turn out to be one in every of the biggest pop sensations of the ‘Sixties and ‘Seventies, their marriages, divorces, and the many groupies they bedded along the approach.
April was a type of groupies... But she was no one-night stand.
The singing star, who celebrated his eightieth birthday on May 3, took April’s virginity when she was slightly 16. They maintained a clandestine on-again, off-again romance over two decades, discovering themselves in every different’s arms throughout America.
Front and heart: April was eight-years-old and she was already getting Frankie's attention. She was so loopy about him, her circle of relatives dressed her up in a big plastic hat emblazoned with the word 'Frankie' in glitter to stand proud of the crowd. Across her chest was a festival banner studying 'Frankie'
Heartthrob: Girls swooned over Frank Valli in the'Sixties with his bed room eyes and his wavy hair
‘He seduced me once I was just 16, took my virginity, and some of the ultimate years of my lifestyles,’ April says. Valli was 39.
She says she was simply an innocent kid when she first met the entertainer, and developed the overwhelm that will affect the remainder of her lifestyles.
‘I was seven years outdated when my 18-year-old aunt Ginny first took me to look Frankie Valli,’ she recollects. ‘My folks, Ralph and Beverly Gatta, divorced once I was 3, and my mom and I went to live on my grandmother’s hen farm in Youngstown, Ohio.
'I was blonde, a cute kid, and the first time I noticed Frankie Valli I was smitten. I went home and the next day bought his report album, which I nonetheless have.
'I don’t suppose my circle of relatives ever supposed to hurt me, but I cherished Frankie Valli such a lot, they idea: “What are we able to do to lend a hand April get beside him?” So it all started very innocently.
‘About the 3rd concert we went to, they started dressing me up to stand out from the crowd, in a velvet swimsuit like his, and in a large plastic hat emblazoned with the phrase “Frankie” in glitter. Across my chest I wore a pageant banner saying: “Frankie.”
'It was a very intimate second and I'd never been so close with him touching my skin, my neck, my chest'
-April Kirkwood
‘I went to peer him whenever he carried out close to Youngstown. He started to notice me in the hat. I’d cross backstage after a display and he’d give me a pleasant kiss, and let me hang out.
‘But through the time I was 16, and all dressed up, I went to look him before the display and he walked up, gave me a kiss on the brow, and began untangling all the necklaces round my neck.
‘It was an excessively intimate moment, and I’d never been so close with him touching my skin, my neck, my chest.
‘I wore some beautiful gauzy Seventies-type get dressed, and I knew I was very good having a look. I was Miss Ohio teenager and went to modelling college. But I was a excellent woman, went to church three times a week, were given immediately As at school. I’ve by no means carried out medicine, and my oldsters relied on me.
'After untangling my necklaces,’ she went on, ‘he kissed me on the brow, and said: “You’ve grown up. You’re gorgeous. Would you like to come backstage for the display?”
‘I believed: Great. I’m going to marry Frankie Valli.
All in the circle of relatives: Frankie additionally hit on April's Aunt Ginny, right here with her niece decked out in a fur coast and beehive hairdo. 'He attempted to get me into bed but I kicked him out of my resort room,' she confirms to MailOnline
‘After the display he modified his garments, took his makeup off, and said: “Do you wish to have to move for a drink?” We went proper to his lodge, the Holiday Inn on Belmont Avenue, had a few drinks, and went back to his room.
‘He kissed me, and said: “Do you wish to have to be with me?” I may infrequently talk. I said: “Uh-huh.”
‘He took my most sensible off. I was a virgin, I didn’t know what I was doing, and he virtually had to direct me.
‘But the sex was fast and it was over. There was no “I really like you,” or “Thank you for sharing that with me.” It wasn’t fabulous, earth-shattering intercourse. I believe he sought after to get to bed, and I had to get again to my oldsters.
‘I was 16, and he was 39, about the same age as my mom. But to me he was a god. Even today, once I see him with too many plastic surgeries and the grey hair, he’s a god.
‘Once I had sex with him, he stated: “Now, don’t do this with anyone else.” That was sealing the deal. I assumed we were going to get married. I beloved him.
‘It didn’t ultimate lengthy, as a result of I was house through midnight. But I beloved him, so I didn’t care how that first evening was. I’d beloved him since I was seven years old.
‘I stated: “I’d like to see you back,” and he said: “You too babe.”
‘I got house by means of middle of the night, were given up the next morning and went to university.’
April’s mom were sexually abused as a child and battled mental problems that left her struggling to cope with motherhood. She discovered it very best to let April do as she needed - even if it meant aiding her daughter’s position in adultery.
Workin' my way back to you: After her divorce in 1994, April attached with Frankie again in Cleveland
‘I believe Frankie was nonetheless married to his wife, Mary Ann, once we first made love,’ says April. ‘But to be honest, she wasn’t someone I actually thought of. The next time, Frankie invited me to go out on excursion with him for a couple of days.
‘I was put on the tablet, and my mother drove me out to Frankie’s excursion bus in Akron, Ohio, and advised him: “Take care of my daughter.”
‘It was stunning that she’d let me move, however they concept: Well, she is beautiful, good, and proficient - perhaps he does love her. He sought after to see me again. I don’t want to imagine that he was simply using me, over and all over again.
We had intercourse far and wide - dressing rooms, hotel rooms, excursions buses, the back seat of limos, you title it, that's the place we did it.
‘So I was his for a few days. The maximum embarrassing factor was that we had intercourse on the bus, with people listening. The tour bus had small bunks, with curtains drawn across them for privateness. We had sex all over - dressing rooms, lodge rooms, excursion buses, the again seat of limos, you name it, that’s the place we did it.'
At the peak of his fame, with hits like ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,’ ‘My Eyes Adored You,’ and ‘Grease,’ Valli had his pick of groupies.
April was a type of girls, but not like different one-night stands, she become Valli’s long-time lover, seeing a man very different from the musical genius inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.
‘I was handled like his girlfriend on the excursion. A limo took us from the hotel to the concert. People photographed us in combination, and asked for my autograph.
Who loves you: The crooners temporarily rose from the ranks to change into considered one of the excellent selling musical groups of all time. Bob Gaudio (some distance left) wrote all the songs, says April, but if any individual called him the 'cornerstone' of the workforce Frankie rudely interrupted pronouncing: 'There would be no Four Seasons and no Bob Gaudio with out Frankie Valli'
‘There have been numerous medication round - marijuana and cocaine - however he by no means did it in entrance of me, and never presented it to me.
‘I’d see Frankie every time I may just. Every time I may just get my hands on him, I would. That first time I went on the street with him, Frankie mentioned he was going to take me away with him.
‘Then his daughter died of a drug overdose, and everything stopped. I was 19, and I misplaced touch with him for a few years.’
Reluctantly, she wed native boy Phillip Regano, but divorced after 18 months and fell again into Valli’s bed whenever she could.
‘Things were a bit extra sexually liberated; sex sooner than marriage was more applicable in the late ‘Seventies,’ she says.
A 2d marriage followed, to development worker Bill Kirkwood, generating children Dana, now elderly 30, and Grant, elderly 26, however it ended after 17 years.
‘I saved seeing Frankie through the ones years, but I wouldn’t have intercourse with him,’ says April. ‘Frankie may not be trustworthy in a marriage, but I was.
‘But my love for Frankie Valli undermined my marriages, and undermined the alternatives of all the men I fell for. I had some excellent guys that really cherished me, and I handed them up, because I was looking for a substitute for Frankie.
‘After my divorce, I went again to Frankie, who had cut up from his third spouse, Toni. But it was all the time me pursuing him. I noticed I never intended as much to him as he intended to me. I was just an Ohio groupie.’
Walk like a person: Frankie was the inspiration for the monster hit play Jersey Boys. Here he confers with director Clint Eastwood on the set of the movie that opens this week
Under my skin: Audiences can not get enough of Jersey Boys in the theater and now hundreds extra will bounce on the bandwagon in the movie starring John Lloyd Young as Frankie Valli
But it in any case hit house that Frankie Valli was a man with many lovers and little loyalty.
‘It was devastating,’ says April. ‘But I didn’t shout or scream or throw anything else. I just bit my lip, and bided my time. I figured he’d realize how a lot I cherished him in the end. I felt I was simply going to love him into this, come hell or top water.’
'I wasted many years of my lifestyles looking ahead to him,’ says April, now aged 56. ‘I wasted a large number of time on the mistaken man.
'He was disgusting, rude and callous, and insensitive to the impact he had.
'There was a streak of cruelty coursing thru him, and it might slice through you just as raw and mean as a razor blade. He could be cruel, kissing a background singer in front of me, and trying to have sex with my aunt.
‘Sometimes he’d shuffle me off home and say: “You have to move now.” He’d minimize our visit brief, and I’d think it was as a result of any individual else was coming . . . and any person else . . . and somebody else. That’s devastating to be told.
‘He’d say: “Here’s my phone quantity” when it wasn’t really his number, I was the eternal butt of his jokes.
‘It was disgusting the method he treated other people, yelling and screaming. Bob Gaudio wrote all the Four Seasons songs, but if any individual known as him the "cornerstone" of the crew Frankie rudely interrupted saying: “There would be no Four Seasons and no Bob Gaudio with out Frankie Valli.”
'He’d scream and shout and move ballistic when issues didn’t cross proper. He’s a diva.
Tough man: Frank was busted in 1965 in Columbis, Ohio after his manager skipped out on a lodge invoice. And he performed mobster Rusty Millio in Season 5 and 6 of HBO's The Sopranos
‘One day when Frankie couldn’t in finding me, he discovered my aunt Ginny and hit on her. He didn’t care. She would were just any other heat body. I was heartbroken.’
Ginny Wieland, now aged 67, in Chicago, Illinois, confirms: ‘He made a move at me and tried to get me into bed, but I kicked him out of my resort room. I advised him I may never do this to my niece. He was an actual sleaze-ball.’
Yet Valli had other requirements for his women.
‘Frankie is a keep an eye on freak,’ says April. ‘I was saved on a short leash. He didn’t like me speaking to other men once I was with him on the highway. He was very possessive and controlling,
‘But he was a run-around. He slept with anyone. I don’t suppose he needed to womanize; other people just wanted to be with him. Yet he wasn’t refined. If he may just f—ok it or consume it, it was just right for him.
‘He knew me since I was seven, knew that I liked him, and he can have protected me. He can have just been a father determine to me . . . or he can have cherished me.
‘He was callous. I don’t assume he cared. He had more money than God, however he wasn’t kind. He simply walked everywhere folks. People who worked for him would shudder when he walked through.
‘They knew when they made a mistake: it is advisable to be kicked out at any minute and instructed to go home. I’ve never met any person who likes him. Everyone I’ve met says he’s a mean SOB. That’s scary.
‘He was not the man I assumed he was. He’s manipulative, a schemer, a screamer, and Napoleonic. I discovered that the Frankie Valli I’d beloved was now not actual.
Bye bye child: April has moved on with her existence, dwelling now in Miami, Florida, and web hosting a dating recommendation display on nice radio stations
‘I was abused. He took benefit of a good thing: A young virgin who cherished him, and he was an opportunist.
‘And he was a selfish lover. He wasn’t concerned about me, ever. Not ever. I gave my virginity to him, and that are supposed to had been with any person who cared for me.
‘He’d be cunning and manipulative. He’d scream at the background dancers, tough issues with a click on of his arms. He believes that the louder you scream, the more he’d get.
‘One time we had been in Newcastle, Ohio, and he demanded that all this gourmand food must be dropped at the live performance venue. Then he never touched it, just breezed proper through it.
'And he was insensitive. He handled ladies like 2nd elegance citizens. I feel he makes use of women. I saw a photograph of him not too long ago with his new female friend, and his grandchildren are most definitely older than her. It’s about power: he can regulate younger ladies.'
‘I guess there have been hundreds of ladies like me, a lady in each and every port,’ she says. ‘But I loved him, and I thought he loved me.’
April’s story is poignant not only for her devotion to Valli, but for his function in prolonging her delusional hope that he would in the future go away his spouse and marry her.
‘But I realize I was a fool to have waited for him. I never asked him to go away his spouse. I simply stored hoping that he’d come thru. I loved Frankie Valli, but I don’t think he knew what love was.’
‘And as the years passed, I noticed Frankie’s not that educated. It’s not his fault he didn’t pass to university, doesn’t talk right, and never reads a book.
Big ladies do cry: April's autobiography is due out at the finish of August
He could have grown, but as an alternative he stayed a narcissistic, grasping guy. He lies to himself. When he was married to Mary Ann he had Toni on the facet and was dozing with me.’
Living now in sun-soaked Miami, Florida, April seems twenty years younger than her Fifty six years, with lengthy blonde hair, huge cheekbones, giant brown Bambi eyes, and bikini-ready curves.
'I’ve been blessed with excellent looks,’ she concedes.
April has two masters degrees in psychological counseling, hosts a courting advice show on nine radio stations, and is writing a memoir about her love for Valli.
She last noticed Frankie in 2010, at the Hard Rock Cafe in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
‘I despatched him a photo behind the curtain of me in his tour T-shirt that mentioned ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry.’ We met, however I didn’t like his perspective and stated: “I’m never coming back. You never loved me. I'm hoping in the subsequent lifestyles you find me, but I’m not doing this to any extent further.”
'I believe perhaps he was relieved.’
When the play ‘Jersey Boys’ toured the US April went to peer the show, and remembers: ‘I had mascara cascading down my face. That’s my story up on degree.’
If she could see Valli yet another time, she has some selection words for him.
‘I’d tell him: I wasn’t like those ladies in ‘Jersey Boys.’ I didn’t desire a fling. I wanted to know you. I wanted you to like me.
‘I wish you’d instructed me from the get started: “April, I’m not going to have sex with you,” or said: “You’re too younger.” I'd have still beloved you as a friend. I’d have taken care of you when you got previous, as a result of I like you even as a pal. When you die, I’ll grieve deeply.
‘I’m not simply a type of dumb women you pick out up. I in reality liked you. I always will. I feel I nonetheless love Frankie Valli now.’
April begs to differ with the title of one of Valli’s largest hits, on the other hand.
'Big ladies do cry,’ she says. ‘They cry laborious and loud . . . But then we rise up and we keep transferring. Today, this big woman is finished crying.’
April is freeing a e book about her lifestyles and instances with Valli known as The Endless Season in August.
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