Toni Tennille: Mutiny Against ‘Emotionally Distant’ Captain

Toni Tennille — who topped the pop charts in the '70s as half of the superstar duo Captain & Tennille — is now trashing her longtime partner and husband Daryl Dragon as an "emotionally distant" spouse who controlled her diet and provided her with an empty and unfulfilling sex life!

Toni Tennille — who topped the pop charts in the '70s as half of the superstar duo Captain & Tennille — is now trashing her longtime partner and husband Daryl Dragon as an "emotionally distant" spouse who controlled her diet and provided her with an empty and unfulfilling sex life!

The National ENQUIRER revealed in September that Toni was writing her autobiography — and that the book, titled "Toni Tennille: A Memoir," wasn't going to be kind to Daryl — also known as "The Captain." She had already filed for divorce from her longtime partner on January 16, 2014, after 39 years of marriage.

Toni Tennille — who topped the pop charts in the '70s as half of the superstar duo Captain & Tennille — is now trashing her longtime partner and husband Daryl Dragon as an "emotionally distant" spouse who controlled her diet and provided her with an empty and unfulfilling sex life!

The National ENQUIRER revealed in September that Toni was writing her autobiography — and that the book, titled "Toni Tennille: A Memoir," wasn't going to be kind to Daryl — also known as "The Captain." She had already filed for divorce from her longtime partner on January 16, 2014, after 39 years of marriage.

“Toni’s writing her autobiography to let women know it’s never too late to find happiness,” said an insider. “They had a complex, somewhat secretive life – with Toni often feeling alone while Daryl withdrew into his own world!"

But in an interview with PEOPLE magazine to push the book, Toni even went so far as to trash the couple's sex life! "Did we have sex?" asked the 75-year-old Toni. "Yes. But it was never tender, it was never emotional. It was never a joining of two hearts. Sex is not love. That's why I eventually said, 'To heck with this.'"

Toni also complained that Daryl's coldness inspired some of the couple's biggest hits. "I felt that he just didn't know what love was," Toni told PEOPLE — adding that songs like "The Way I Want to Touch You" and "Do That To Me One More Time" were written as her attempts to reach out to her husband.

"I thought if I showed him what it was, if I was able to give it to him, then he would open up like a flower," said Toni. "It never happened."

An excerpt from "Toni Tennille" has the songstress (seen here at her former Arizona home) also blasting her husband as controlling, as she says that a desperate desire to please her husband had her suffering alongside him through a faddish Grapefruit Diet: "I began to grow weaker and weaker each passing day, barely gathering up enough energy to perform at night. My clothes hung from my body, and cheekbones I didnd't know I had emerged on my face."

"At that point in our relationship," wrote Toni, " I was still holding my tongue about Daryl's crazy ideas, so I did exactly as he proposed. In retrospect, I look back and think, 'What an idiot...I should have thrown the damn grapefruits on the floor, gotten up, and gone down to enjoy the lavish dinner buffer with everyone else. But I didn't. I believed that this diet was another kind of 'test' that Daryl was subjecting me to, and i was determined to pass it. If I didn't, I was afraid that the would see me as weak and flawed!"

Daryl — who resides in Arizona, with Toni having moved to Florida — declined to comment on his ex-wife's damning stories. Toni told PEOPLE that he hadn't read the book. The perky songstress, however, insisted that The Captain was just fine with her unleashing intimate secrets. "He said, 'I'm not worried — I know you're a straight shooter,'" assured Toni.