UK NEWS

A NEW BRIDE LESS THAN HALF HIS AGE FOR DRUMS LEGEND GINGER

Performing with Cream in 2004

Tuesday February 9,2010

By David Pilditch

HE is one of the world’s greatest drummers and has been battling crippling back pain. A three-year legal dispute also nearly pushed him to the brink of bankruptcy.

But now, at 70, three-times married rocker Ginger Baker has found happiness once again – with the young nurse who has been helping him through the tough times.

And yesterday the former heroin addict – who found fame in the 1960s with supergroup Cream – told how he is set to marry for the fourth time after falling for Kudzai Machokoto, 28.

She may be 42 years his junior but a decade after finalising his third divorce, Baker insists he is now ready for a fresh start with the pretty Zimbabwean.

He said: “We are getting married soon, we are making the arrangements at the moment.

“We’ll get married locally but it will be a quiet do, just us and two witnesses.She is good for me and it is time for me to get married again.”

At the height of his success Baker sold 35 million records in two years with Cream bandmates Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce.

His recent autobiography Hellraiser revealed how a lifetime of addiction and wild living had taken a heavy toll.

He has been diagnosed with a degenerative spine condition and the onset of emphysema.

A messy legal battle in South Africa – the country where he made his home 11 years ago – has added to his woes.

South London-born Baker – who now breeds polo ponies on his 75-acre estate in Tulbagh, Cape Town – revealed his plans after proposing to the single mother with whom he has shared his home since 2008.

Miss Machokoto’s 12-year-old daughter Lisa also lives with them.

He said: “It all seems right. Kudzai is good to me. She has had a hard life up to now but now things are happier. I look after her and she looks after me.”

Miss Machokoto, who makes sure Baker takes his daily medication, has also been helping him through the fraud legal battle which began in 2007.

Baker was the victim of a scam after a female bank worker allegedly siphoned off £40,000 from his account.

The woman claimed she was having an affair with Baker and he had given her the money as a gift. He denied the claims and won a civil case against the woman. She is now facing 27 charges of fraud and theft after being accused of defrauding two other customers. Last month Baker said of the ordeal: “I am on the verge of being broke.” Baker said he gets between £100,000 and £200,0000 a year from royalties but was facing cash flow problems as the cheques only arrive “twice a year”.

Baker wed first wife Liz Finch, 20, in 1959; his second wife, only named in his book as Sarah, in 1983; and third wife Karen Loucks, 26, in 1990. He returned to the stage in 2005 for a Cream reunion but later vowed to quit music.

Amazon.co.uk Widgets