U2 frontman Bono has revealed that he has a half-brother that he only found out about in the early 21st century. 

Speaking to Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio's Desert Island Discs, Bono said he first found out about the man in 2000, describing him as a brother that he "adores and loves". 

He said his late father Bob had a child with a "gorgeous woman" who his mother, Iris, never found out about, adding that he had made peace with the situation. 

"I asked him [his father] did he love my mother and he said yes, and I asked him how could this happen and he said, 'it can' and that he was trying to put it right, trying to do the right thing," Bono told Laverne.

"He wasn't apologizing, he was just stating these are the facts... I’m at peace with it." 

Bono also revealed that his relationship with his father came under strain after his mother died when he was just 14. 

The U2 frontman admitted he was partly to blame for the breakdown in relations with his father and said he apologized shortly after Bob died during a visit to a chapel in Paris in 2001. 

"There was nobody there, I lit a candle and I got on my knees, and I just said, 'look, I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you, you went through a lot and please forgive me', and I felt free." 

In the wide-ranging interview, Bono also discussed his much-maligned poem written about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that was read out by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the White House on St. Patrick's Day. 

"It took 10 minutes, it was trying to be a satire, funny and the Speaker of The House, instead of saying Limerick, said it was poem and so people thought it was like Seamus Heaney!"