Phil Collins’ kids prepared to ‘say goodbye’ amid his hospitalization

Phil Collins‘ children came close to having to say their final goodbyes to their father.

The “You’ll be in My Heart” singer, 75, has suffered from declining health in recent years, most recently spending time in the hospital last summer following a knee surgery.

In April 2024, he was also hospitalized in Switzerland, where he was unconscious as a result of his heavy alcohol use, leading his children to prepare possible final goodbyes.

In an interview with The Sunday Times, Phil, who is a father to kids Joely, 52, Simon, 48, Lily, 36, Nicholas, 24, and Mathew, 20, explained how during the incident, his state was such that “there were some decisions to be made about ‘Do we keep Phil on life support?’ kind of thing.”

“My kidneys were packing up, my organs were just seizing up,” he further shared about his health at the time, revealing: “People were coming to say goodbye.”

However, he confessed he doesn’t “remember” his children coming to do as much, adding: “I didn’t have no idea this was going on. They were all worried that they wouldn’t see me again. It could all have gone so terribly wrong.”

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“I was very lucky to have come out of that,” he maintained to the outlet, which reports Phil was taken to the hospital in connection with his alcohol use in November 2023, discharged three days before Christmas, only to be rushed back into intensive care, subsequently spending seven months in the hospital.

“Needless to say, I haven’t had a drink since,” he emphasized, further sharing the bonding that he was able to do with his children after the scare.

He recalled his daughter Lily, an actress and a mom to daughter Tove, 17 months, was “sitting beside me in tears, saying, ‘I never thought I’d get these moments,'” and further gushed: “We had an incredible time. I can’t overemphasise how fantastic it was,” he added.

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Phil has now been several years in retirement from his singing and drumming career, in part because of his declining health, and during his last slate of concerts in 2022, he had to perform while sitting down, and he was replaced on the drums by his son, Nic.

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In 2025, he opened up about his ailing health, confessing it had largely taken away his hunger for making music. In addition to having type 2 diabetes, he suffers from lingering effects of a spinal injury from 2007. “I keep thinking I should go downstairs to the studio and see what happens,” the eight-time Grammy winner told MOJO Magazine back in February, however he noted: “But I’m not hungry for it anymore.”

“The thing is, I’ve been sick. I mean very sick,” he further admitted. He also opened up shortly after his retirement about losing the ability to play drums. Speaking on his career and its physical toll in the YouTube documentary Phil Collins: Drummer First he shared: “It’s still kind of sinking in a bit… I’ve spent all my life playing drums. To suddenly not be able to do that is a shock.”