How Sting and Trudie Styler's infamous tantric love sessions influenced one of his songs

8 February 2024, 16:20

Did anybody even know what tantric sex was before Sting mentioned it?

During his interview with Bob Geldof in 1993 for Q magazine, Sting - after sinking a few too many afternoon glasses of wine - divulged a little too much about his sex life.

When asked about how practising yoga has benefitted his life, he responded quite candidly about the impact it had in the bedroom with his wife Trudie Styler.

"It can take you to higher levels, yeah. I've started to use it in sex now where you don’t spill your seed," Sting confessed.

"In yoga, sex is a spiritual focus of energy. It ends when you choose it to. If you’ve gone on for four or five hours, you don't really want to come."

• How many children does Sting have and who are they?
• The Police's 10 best songs ever, ranked
• Sting reveals why The Police will never ever be reuniting again
• The Police's best music videos: Stewart Copeland breaks down band's biggest songs

"It involves this muscle a lot of men aren’t trained to control," he then joked, but it was an interview that would stick to him for years.

Later reported that his and Styler's tantric sex sessions would last up to seven hours, Sting took the sexual and spiritual practice to the mainstream, though it was usually in the form of him being mocked.

Because of the ridicule he got for the interview, it inspired Sting to write a song in response to the tag, writing 'Sacred Love' in 2003 to reinforce the notion that lovemaking is a "most powerful force in our human nature".

In his 2007 book, Lyrics By Sting, the former frontman of The Police opened up about what exactly influenced him to write 'Sacred Love', which was also the title of the album it came from.

"I famously made an off-the-cuff comment about tantric sex one day that sped around the world like a digital virus and continues to reverberate even now, seventeen year later," Sting wrote.

"The interpretation that tantra has to do with 'staying power' is of course fatuous, but the idea that sex could be considered a sacred act seemed too much for a world media attuned to the minutiae of trivia."

"Sex is either scandalous - when, for example, politicians are caught in flagrante delicto - or it's used to sell cars and aftershave," he continued.

"In both cases, eroticism, the most powerful force in our human nature, is devalued to the point of worthlessness."

His album Sacred Love is probably most remembered for the collaboration with Mary J. Blige on 'Whenever I Say Your Name' which bagged Sting a Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals the following year.

Sacred Love

No matter the meaning behind 'Sacred Love', Sting still couldn't shake the tantric sex tag, with interviewers continuing to pry into his relationship in the bedroom.

However, during his appearance on Inside The Actor's Studio in 2014, the 'Fields Of Gold' singer was pushed to address the historical claims.

When asked by host James Lipton about whether or not there was any truth to what Sting said, he joked: "If we had seven hours, I would demonstrate."

"Maybe not. But there is some truth to it. The idea of tantric sex is a spiritual act," he replied openly.

"I don’t know any purer and better way of expressing a love for another individual than sharing that wonderful, I call it, 'sacrament.' I would stand by it. Not seven hours, but the idea."