Robert Smith

He later attended Notre Dame Middle School (1970-1972) and St. Wilfrid's Comprehensive School (1972-1977) in Crawley.

Robert Smith described Notre Dame Middle School as "a very free thinking establishment" with an experimental approach; a freedom he claimed to have abused. On one occasion, Smith said that he wore a black velvet dress to Notre Dame and kept it on all day "because the teachers just thought 'oh, it's a phase he's going through, he's got some personality crisis, let's help him through it'." According to Smith "four other kids" beat him up after school, although band biographer Jeff Apter notes that Smith has given several conflicting versions of the story. Apter also reports that Smith put in minimal effort at Notre Dame, sufficient to gain pass marks, and quotes Smith as saying: "If you were crafty enough … you could convince the teachers you were special: I did virtually nothing for three years." Smith's secondary school St. Wilfrid's was reportedly much stricter than Notre Dame. In the summer of 1975, Robert Smith and his school bandmates sat their O Level exams, but only he and Michael Dempsey stayed on to attend sixth form at St. Wilfrid's between 1976 and 1977. Smith has claimed that he was expelled from St. Wilfrid's as an "undesirable influence" after their band Malice's second live performance shortly before Christmas 1976, which took place at the school and allegedly caused a riot. "I got taken back 1977 but they never acknowledged that I was there … I did three 'A' levels – failed biology miserably, scraped through French and got a 'B' in English. Read Less

He described the release of Anarchy in the UK by the Sex Pistols as "the last time something major happened to me and changed me... it was the best summer of my life. I remember listening to "Anarchy" for the very first time at a party and thinking "this is it!" You knew straight away, you either loved it or hated it, and it polarised an entire nation for that summer" Elsewhere Smith said that "the Stranglers were my favourite punk band" and that "Elvis Costello was a cut above the whole lot of them. The way he used words and the way the songs were put together... gave me something to aspire to."

Of both Siouxsie and The Buzzcocks' influence on his early output, Smith has said: "The two groups that I aspired to be like were the Banshees and The Buzzcocks … I really liked The Buzzcocks' melodies, while the great thing about the Banshees was that they had this great wall of noise, which I'd never heard before. My ambition was to try to marry the two." Read Less

Cure bassist Simon Gallup was Smith's best man, and 150 guests attended the service. Smith composed The Cure's Lovesong as a wedding present for Mary. Smith told fans that his favourite wedding gift was a platinum heart from Mary. Smith has said that the couple made the decision early in their relationship not to have children, and maintains that he is too irresponsible and erratic to be a father. He has used the analogy of his songs as his babies: "A bunch of really morose, retarded children I've given birth to!"

In July 2012, Italian magazine XL reported that the couple now reside in Aldwick, West Sussex.

Smith began sporting his trademark and cult style of smeared red lipstick, eye-liner, pale complexion, artfully dishevelled black hair, black clothes and trainers in the early 1980s, around the same time as the Goth subculture took off. However, Smith denies any credit for this trend and claims it is a coincidence that the styles are similar, stating that he wore make-up since he was young and further saying: "It's so pitiful when 'Goth' is still tagged onto the name The Cure." Read Less