47 Facts About Ali Hewson

Alison Hewson is an Irish activist and businesswoman.

Ali Hewson is married to singer and musician Paul Hewson, known as Bono, from the rock group U2.

Ali Hewson was awarded a degree in politics and sociology from University College Dublin in 1989.

Ali Hewson has inspired several U2 songs, most famously "Sweetest Thing".

Ali Hewson narrated Black Wind, White Land, a 1993 Irish documentary about the lasting effects of the Chernobyl disaster, and has worked closely with activist Adi Roche.

Ali Hewson has been a patron of Chernobyl Children's Project International since 1994 and has participated in a number of aid missions to the high-radiation exclusion zones of Belarus.

Ali Hewson has campaigned against Sellafield, the northern English nuclear facility.

Ali Hewson is the co-founder of two ethical businesses, the EDUN fashion line in 2005, and Nude Skincare products in 2007.

Ali Hewson has an older brother, Ian, and nephew, Ross Stewart, who both live in Australia.

Ali Hewson's father was a self-educated electrical worker who, according to Hewson, was "constantly questioning" things.

Ali Hewson's mother, who was a housewife, had a secretarial career in mind for her daughter.

At the age of twelve, she met Paul Ali Hewson, who was in the year above at the school.

Ali Hewson pursued her immediately, but she initially kept her distance, labeling him "an eejit" even though she secretly admired him.

Ali Hewson married Bono on 31 August 1982 in a Church of Ireland ceremony at All Saints Church, Raheny.

Ali Hewson says I'm very good with the dog whistle.

Ali Hewson saw children with no possessions and at risk of death; despite this, to her they appeared more spiritually alive than those in Ireland who had material comforts but seemed spoiled and spiritually unaware, like her own children.

In 1992, Ali Hewson participated in Greenpeace protests against the Sellafield plant for nuclear reprocessing, located across the Irish Sea in Cumbria, England.

Ali Hewson was especially set against the under-construction Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant component being opened.

Ali Hewson was aboard Greenpeace's MV Solo when it staged a publicity-oriented "raid" wherein the band members landed on the beach at the plant in rubber dinghies, but she said she had not been responsible for that particular protest.

Since 1994, Ali Hewson has been a patron of Chernobyl Children's Project International, an organisation founded and run by Roche that works with children, families, and communities that continue to be affected by Chernobyl.

Ali Hewson has organised overland aid convoys and sometimes driven ambulances filled with medical supplies herself; in one case she had to retreat quickly when a fire spread in a village a few miles from Chernobyl.

Ali Hewson has made sure her own children met those from Chernobyl with birth deformities and other illnesses, so that they would have a broader appreciation of the world and what to be thankful for.

Ali Hewson has said that fundraising for those affected is very difficult, given that many people believe the problems of Chernobyl are all in the past.

The Shut Sellafield Campaign had its postcards stocked in Superquinn and Dunnes Stores supermarkets, and Ali Hewson publicly engaged Tesco when they refused to do the same.

The campaign was backed by celebrities, including Ronan Keating and Samantha Mumba, and Ali Hewson made many newspaper and radio appearances on its behalf.

Ali Hewson's continued activism meant that she too would not always be around for the couple's children.

Ali Hewson jokingly added that she could not see Bono agreeing to live in a smaller house.

Ali Hewson received a media mention two years later as a possible Social Democratic and Labour Party candidate in the 2004 European Parliament elections after John Hume had stood down.

Ali Hewson demurred once more, saying she did not speak the Irish language well enough, this time adding humorously that she could not see her husband being willing to walk behind her at events.

Notwithstanding this speculation, Ali Hewson generally shies away from political comments in the media.

Ali Hewson has long advocated for a children's museum for Ireland, inspired by a positive experience her daughters had at the Dallas Children's Museum in the mid-1990s.

In 2015 Ali Hewson signed an open letter which the ONE Campaign had been collecting signatures for; the letter was addressed to Angela Merkel and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, urging them to focus on women as they serve as the head of the G7 in Germany and the AU in South Africa respectively, which will start to set the priorities in development funding before a main UN summit in September 2015 that will establish new development goals for the generation.

Ali Hewson emphasised that Edun would have to be profitable to be considered a success, but in this it struggled.

Ali Hewson later admitted that the couple were naive about what it takes to make a successful fashion enterprise.

In 2009, Ali Hewson brought legal action in England against Stella McCartney for bringing out Stella Nude, a new eau de toilette version of the Stella perfume, saying that it amounted to copyright infringement of her own Nude Skincare.

Ali Hewson lost in the High Court when Mr Justice Floyd ruled against her.

Ali Hewson was literally kicking me out of bed in the morning, putting the pen in my hand.

Ali Hewson has served as at least partial inspiration for many Bono-authored U2 songs, going back to the track "Another Time, Another Place" from their 1980 debut album Boy.

Ali Hewson helped Bono get through a bad period of writer's block during the lead-up to the 1983 War album, particularly in the composition of the lyrics to "Sunday Bloody Sunday".

Ali Hewson inspired the personal themes in "New Year's Day", from the same record.

That album and the accompanying War Tour brought financial success to the band, and Bono and Ali Hewson moved into a three-level, three-room Martello tower in Bray.

Ali Hewson agreed to appear in the single's music video as long as all proceeds from it went to Chernobyl Children's Project.

Ali Hewson does have to deal with the psychological effects of her husband coming off tour and readjusting to domestic life.

Ali Hewson has stated, "I've no desire to be a star," seeing the effect intense public attention has had on both her husband and on activist Adi Roche.

Ali Hewson is happy to do that; I am quite happy to make my own way around things.

In 2002, Ali Hewson received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the National University of Ireland for her work on environmental issues, particularly the Chernobyl Children's Project.

Bono and Ali Hewson were given the Council of Fashion Designers of America board of directors' Special Tribute Award in 2007 for their humanitarian work via the Edun clothing line.