David Bowie’s half-brother, Terry Burns (later Jones), was born when their mother, Peggy Burns, was 22, the result of a brief relationship with a French barman who soon left. The stigma of illegitimacy weighed heavily, and Terry was handed to Peggy’s mother, Margaret, who was emotionally abusive to him. Peggy later married Haywood “John” Stenton Jones in 1946, and David was born the following year. Terry re-joined the family around this time, aged nine, but he endured a childhood marked by favoritism toward David, neglect, and emotional abuse. These early experiences contributed to lifelong mental illness, with repeated psychiatric hospitalisations, and ultimately Terry tragically ended his life in 1985 at age 47. Bowie’s fear of madness, shaped by his brother’s suffering, became a recurring theme in his music. The way David Bowie overcame family abuse and transformed his pain into creative expression has much to teach us about resilience, creativity and the power of nurturing one’s potential,