Biography
Adèle King (born Adèle Condron-King) is an Irish entertainer better known as Twink. She is from Dublin. She is the mother of singer Chloë Agnew from the group Celtic Woman.
King began singing and acting at the age of five. She was a Gaiety Kiddie and worked in pantomime. She was also a Young Dublin Singer, from which was formed the trio Maxi, Dick and Twink.
She has spent more than 30 years in Dublin's theaters: 26 years in the Gaiety Theatre, two years in the Point Theatre and five years in the Olympia Theatre. At the Olympia Theatre she co-produced and co-wrote much of the shows. She has been described as Ireland's 'Panto Queen'.
King has had roles in a number of theatrical productions in Ireland, including: Dirty Dusting at the Gaiety Theatre and Menopause: The Musical.
King has appeared on Irish television regularly since the late 1960s. She has starred in her own series Twink on RTÉ. She spent ten years on Play the Game, and has made many appearances as a guest on a wide range of programs, including RTÉ's The Late Late Show, being the subject of a tribute on that show in 2005. She also was the subject of a weekend visit by the television program Livin' with Lucy with Lucy Kennedy.
In 1993 she was the guest act at a Christmas concert by Perry Como at Dublin's Point Theatre, televised to a worldwide audience of 880 million.
In 2003 she took part in RTÉ's Celebrity Farm and in 2011, she won TV3's Celebrity Head Chef, receiving EUR10,000 for charity as a result.
She won a Jacob's Award for her performance in her 1981 Christmas Light Entertainment Special on RTÉ Two.
King established a performance school in summer 2002, the Adèle King Theatre School in Castleknock and Greenhills. Pupils of the school have appeared on television, in films, and in commercials in Ireland and abroad. The school did not re-open for the 2008 autumn term.
Twink married oboist David Agnew in 1983 and had two children, Chloë in 1989, who sings with the group Celtic Woman, and Naomi in 1993.
Twink's marriage ended after 21 years, in October 2004. In February 2006, David Agnew (aged 45) had a baby with clarinetist Ruth Hickey (29). Twink has pet dogs, cats, birds, and a donkey. She lives with her daughters in Knocklyon, Dublin.
In September 2014 it was widely reported across major Irish media outlets that Twink's dog, Teddy Bear, was kidnapped. Commenting on the events, Twink was quoted describing the Linda Martin as being "a very powerful woman in the dog world" and that the kidnapping marked her own personal "Erin Brockovich moment". On 24 September Twink was reunited with her dog after a public tip-off led to the police arrest of a man in Dublin.
