GENE SIMMONS Opens Up About True Love And Marriage: 'I Never Wanted To Be Hurt Ever Again'

KISS legend Gene Simmons and his wife Shannon Tweed recently sat down with Sky News Australia host Piers Morgan to discuss their marriage, children and more. Asked what "true love" means to him, Gene replied (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Shamefully, I never confronted myself about that and barely said 'I love you' to my mother. Shocking and shamefully… I was afraid of being weak and not… I never opened myself to that. You know, the 'knight in shining armor' thing — at least you have protection around you. And I never wanted to be hurt ever again… What can I say? There's no school for life and there's no school that says, 'Okay, this is what marriage is. This is what a relationship is.'"

Simmons's father left him and his Holocaust-survivor mother when he was a child. Speaking later, he commented on his refusal to contact his dad while his dad was alive: "I wanted to prove to myself and to everybody else and to my father that I didn't need him, so once I proved it and became successful, I wanted to stand stubbornly on my pride and not move."

Gene married Shannon in 2011 after 28 years of dating. The wedding at The Beverly Hills Hotel was attended by 400 guests, including their two children, Nick, born in 1989, and Sophie, born in 1992. At the reception, Simmons and his KISS bandmates performed.

The now-73-year-old musician proposed to his longtime girlfriend in Belize, saying, "I come with so much baggage, but you're the only friend I've got, you're the only one I've ever loved."

A short time before his proposal, Gene and Shannon got into a nasty tiff on "The Joy Behar Show" when he joined in a joke about his past philandering ways, ticking Tweed off. She stormed off the set.

Tweed, who was named Playmate Of The Month by Playboy magazine in November 1981 and later, Playmate Of The Year in 1982, first met Simmons at the Playboy Mansion through Hugh Hefner, whom she briefly dated.

Gene and his family were the stars of the reality television series "Gene Simmons Family Jewels", which premiered on A&E in August 2006. The show ran for seven seasons.