Deborah Curtis is the widow of one of the most famous post-punk wave musicians, founder and lead singer of Joy Division, Ian Curtis. She is the author of The Touch at a Distance, a book that describes her life with her husband from the first meeting until his death, as well as the screenwriter and producer of a biographical film about Curtis called Control. How does the widow of a famous musician live now?
Biography
Deborah Curtis was born on December 13, 1956 in Liverpool (UK). When she was three years old, the family moved to Maxfield. Debbie's female school collaborated with the male in which Ian studied. Before meeting with the future icon of rock music, nothing happened in Deborah’s life that would radically distinguish her from other girls of that time: she studied at school, hoped one day to get a scholarship in college, was not particularly keen on anything, went to dances and walked with the boys . All her work - literary and production - began only after the death of Ian and was dedicated to him.
Meet Yen
Deborah met her future husband in 1972, when she was 16. The guy she was walking with then, Tony Nuttall, was Ian's best friend, so all three often spent time at Curtis’s house, chatting and listening to records. Soon, Tony, without explanation, decided to part with the girl. To support her, Ian decided to invite Debbie to the David Bowie concert.
Deborah said that initially she didn’t even think that she and Ian could have a relationship, and she went to the concert only to unwind, and maybe meet Tony and ask why he decided to break up with her. But for the first time in private with Curtis, she was suddenly fascinated by the intelligence and dissimilarity of this young man. From this day, Ian and Debbie began to meet.
About the first months of her romantic relationship with Ian, Debbie recalls that she immediately found herself in a different world: before that, the maximum of her entertainment was school dancing until ten in the evening, now life has turned into a series of nightclubs, home parties and concerts. Deborah also says that from the very first days Curtis tried to isolate the girl from her old friends, escorted her wherever she went, and in general took control of her whole life.
Difficult marriage
In 1974, after a year and a half of a relationship, Debbie began to think about breaking up with Ian. She was very tired of his endless surveillance, outbursts of anger and fits of jealousy. But the young man did not agree to part. A month later, Ian Curtis made Debbie an offer. He sold his guitar to buy her an engagement ring with a diamond and sapphires - this feat struck the girl to the core.
But with the beginning of a life together, the exploits were over. Deborah and Ian got married on August 23, 1975 and, to the surprise of the girl, the wedding was held without scandals from the newly made husband. The problems began with the fact that during the paperwork for the new house, the newlyweds temporarily settled in the house of Yen's grandparents. Deborah felt uncomfortable, the old men literally served them, were not allowed to pay either for housing or for food, grandmother even independently washed the things of the newlyweds in the sink, since they did not have a washing machine. The documents for the new house were already ready, but Ian pulled and pulled with the move, he was comfortable with his old people, maybe he suddenly began to be afraid to be alone with his young wife.
After the long-awaited move to their home between the spouses, even more strained relations were established - they talked a little, Ian became more and more self-absorbed, there was not enough money, since Curtis could not find a good job for a long time. If before the wedding, Debbie and Ian were constantly cursing, now the tactics have changed: Curtis simply ignored his wife, turned away when she began to strew reproaches, or locked herself in another room.
In 1976, Ian Curtis created the cult group Joy Division. The team quickly became popular, but at the same time, due to performances and overwork, Ian returned to epileptic seizures that had already happened to him in childhood, but did not appear for a long time. Because of this, the musician begins a serious depression, seriously affecting Deborah. He could suddenly become caring and gentle with his wife for a couple of days, for example, returning from a concert tour. But then he became discouraged, he was gloomy and evil for whole weeks. The attacks themselves were exhausted: Deborah lived in constant tension and fear for her husband. When the attacks became almost daily, she was already pregnant and was very afraid of losing her baby due to constant stress.
Birth of a daughter and treason
In 1979, Deborah Curtis gave birth to a daughter, Natalie. The common child brought the spouses together for a while, but with the growing popularity of Joy Division, Yen paid less and less attention to his small family, and endless seizures drove him deeper and deeper into depression.
In the same year, Curtis began an affair with the Belgian journalist Annik Honore, about whom he immediately told his wife. Their relationship remained platonic, but he could not even hide from Hobbies from Deborah, suffering and tormented by the fact that his conscience did not allow him to abandon his unloved wife, but with his small child in his arms.
Yen's death
On May 18, 1980, Deborah Curtis found her husband in the kitchen of their house, hanging from a clothesline. This day the widow of the musician still remembers with horror, she did not even participate in the identification of the body due to the terrible shock, her father attended this procedure for her. Deborah and Annik Honore received a farewell note from Ian Curtis, their contents were not disclosed.
Touch in the distance
The title of this book, Deborah Curtis took from the song Joy Division Transmission. All chapters of the book are also associated with the names or lines of songs of Joy Division. Transmission: Touching from a distance further all the time - "Touching at a distance gets farther with time." This biographical story Deborah published in 1995. Fifteen years after her husband’s death, she couldn’t get used to his tragic death so much, and this book was her attempt to understand what had happened.
The Touch from a Distance describes events from 1972 to 1980, that is, from the time Deborah met Ian until his death. Despite the fact that this is the most reliable biography of Curtis' backstage life, many fans of the group do not take the book seriously, considering it a "memoir of an offended woman." In the book, the widow’s resentment, her dissatisfaction with her ruined life and her too critical attitude to Ian are really felt. However, all this affects the tone of the narrative rather than the reliability of the events described.
The control
In 2007, based on Deborah’s book, the movie Control was filmed for the Touch of a Distance movie. The widow herself reworked her book under the script and acted as the producer of the picture. As in the book, the plot of the film is focused not on the musician’s work, but on his personal life, special attention is paid to relations with his wife and lover Annik Honore. A scene from the movie with Debbie and Ian is in the photo below.
The role of Deborah Curtis was performed by the English actress Samantha Morton - the widow personally chose the actress who will play her role, communicating with each of the applicants for a long time. Most of all, Deborah liked that the actress raised her child without a husband, which means that she can correctly portray the feelings of a widow who remained alone with the child in her arms even before her husband's death. The role of Ian Curtis was played by the Englishman Sam Riley, and the role of his lover Annik Honore was played by the German actress Alexandra Maria Lara.
Natalie Curtis
With her daughter, 39-year-old Natalie Curtis, Deborah maintains a good relationship. She lives in England and works as a photographer. Nothing is known about the girl’s personal life, as she eschews the public and tries to keep secret information about who her father is. Deborah explains that the girl does not hold any grudge against Yen: "Natalie is very sensitive to her father’s legacy, knows all his songs by heart. But she doesn’t want people to perceive her as the daughter of a famous rocker, she wants to be a self-sufficient person. She’s happy with her untouchable personal life."
Deborah Curtis today
After the release of “Touch at a Distance” and “Control,” many accusations were made against the widow of the musician from Joy Division fans. Deborah commented as follows: "Nobody wants to see their idol in a bad light, but I just told the truth."
In addition to the aforementioned book and film, Deborah no longer resorted to creativity. She continues to live in England on income from the use of any works of Ian Curtis, as she is the owner of all the rights to the work of her late husband.