David Bowie (1947–2016) had many personal relationships throughout his life. He was married twice and had two children, one with each woman. His first marriage to Angie Bowie was an open marriage, during which the pair dated other people. His second marriage to Iman lasted the rest of his life.
Bowie's sexuality was debated. He had sexual relationships with men and women throughout the 1960s and 1970s. He famously came out as gay in a 1972 interview, affirming his bisexuality in 1976, although he later called these declarations a mistake, saying in a 1983 interview that he "was always a closet heterosexual".
Bowie explored various themes of spirituality and religion throughout his life. In the late 1960s, after several failed singles, he attempted to become a Buddhist monk before returning to music. In the early 1970s, he became fascinated with occultism, which inspired several songs throughout the decade. Although he denied having a religious stance in 1987, he continued exploring religious themes, such as gnosticism and Christianity, for the rest of his musical career.
In 1976, Bowie, as his persona the Thin White Duke, made comments supporting fascism. These partly inspired the formation of the Rock Against Racism movement. He later retracted these statements, blaming them on mental instability caused by drug addiction. Throughout the rest of his life, he made occasional political statements in interviews and through his music.
Family Parents and half-brother Bowie's parents were Margaret "Peggy" Jones (1913–2001) and Haywood Stenton "John" Jones (1912–1969). Peggy was a waitress at a cinema in Royal Tunbridge Wells, and John was a promotions officer for the children's charity Barnardo's. John died in early August 1969, shortly after the single release of "Space Oddity". Bowie lost touch with Peggy following his commercial breakthrough in the early 1970s, but resumed contact in 1992 after his marriage to Iman.
Terry Burns (1937–1985) was Bowie's paranoid schizophrenic half-brother. Burns was a major influence on Bowie's songwriting in the early 1970s. The narrator of his 1970 song "All the Madmen" was both inspired by and about him, while his 1971 song "The Bewlay Brothers" was "very much based on myself and my brother". By 1970, Burns was confined to London's Cane Hill Hospital, graced on the original cartoon cover of The Man Who Sold the World and the lines "mansions cold and grey" on "All the Madmen". Burns was a fan of the rock band Cream and took Bowie to see them play in the 1960s. Bowie later attempted covers of Cream's "I Feel Free" for Pin Ups (1973) and Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980) before finally recording it for Black Tie White Noise (1993). Burns died by suicide in 1985. Bowie loosely based his 1993 song "Jump They Say" on Burns, saying in an interview: "It's the first time I've felt capable of addressing it."
Marriages Angie Bowie
Bowie met his first wife, Mary Angela Barnett, through the music executive Calvin Lee, having their first date on 30 May 1969. According to longtime producer Tony Visconti, "Calvin Lee was besotted with David—and his hidden agenda was to have him as a boyfriend. But Angie Bowie, who arrived on the scene during the recording of [The Man Who Sold the World], squashed all possibility of that." David wrote his 1970 single "The Prettiest Star" for Angie, playing it down the telephone as part of his proposal to her on Christmas 1969. They married on 19 March 1970 at Bromley Register Office in Bromley, London, two weeks after the single flopped.
Angie later described her and David's union as a marriage of convenience. "We got married so that I could [get a permit to] work. I didn't think it would last and David said, before we got married, 'I'm not really in love with you' and I thought that's probably a good thing," she said. Bowie said about Angie that "living with her is like living with a blow torch". The couple had an open marriage and dated other people during it. They divorced on 8 February 1980; David received custody of Duncan. After the expiration of the gag order that was part of their divorce agreement, Angie wrote a memoir of their turbulent marriage, titled Backstage Passes: Life on the Wild Side with David Bowie.
Iman
David met Somali-American model Iman in Los Angeles following the Sound+Vision Tour in October 1990. They married in a private ceremony in Lausanne on 24 April 1992. The wedding was solemnised on 6 June in Florence. The couple's marriage influenced the content of Black Tie White Noise, particularly on tracks such as "The Wedding"/"The Wedding Song" and "Miracle Goodnight". The couple resided primarily in New York City and London and owned an apartment in Sydney's Elizabeth Bay and Britannia Bay House on the island of Mustique. Despite their fame, the couple were successful in living a mostly private life in Manhattan, being able to walk around the city unnoticed.
Following Bowie's death, Iman expressed gratitude that the two were able to maintain separate identities throughout their marriage. She also said she would never remarry, refusing to address him as her "late" husband. On the 10th anniversary of Bowie's death, Iman shared a new Blackstar tattoo commemorating him, featuring the five black star segments that spell out "Bowie" on that album's cover artwork.
Children Duncan Jones
David and Angie had one son, Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones, born on 30 May 1971 shortly before the sessions for Hunky Dory began; David wrote the song "Kooks" as a tribute to his newborn. On Duncan's opinion of the song, Bowie said in 1999: "He likes it. Yeah, he's got fondness for it. He knows full well that it was written for him."
Duncan was mostly raised by his father David and his Scottish nanny, Marion Skene. Discussing his father's influence on him, Duncan said that his love for science fiction drew from watching science fiction films with his father growing up as a young boy. David taught his son about moviemaking, from storyboards and script-writing, to lighting and editing. Duncan later said: "While Dad would go on stage, I'd be making my little movies." Duncan visited his father on the sets of The Hunger, Absolute Beginners and Labyrinth in the 1980s. Duncan's interest in filmmaking began with his desire to find a creative outlet that differed from his father's. He told interviewers that growing up, David attempted to teach his son several instruments, including piano, saxophone, guitar and drums, which he disliked. Following Bowie's death in 2016, Duncan said: "He gave me the time and the support to find my feet, and the confidence to do what I do."
Lexi Jones Bowie and Iman's daughter, Alexandria "Lexi" Zahra Jones, was born on August 15, 2000, in New York City, midway through the sessions for the Toy project. Jones initially lived a private life, despite her parents' public lives. She was offered modelling jobs, but Iman rejected them, citing her own experiences as a model and wanting her daughter to live a private life for as long as possible. Throughout her teens, Jones struggled with mental health issues. When David Bowie died on January 10, 2016, Jones was 15 years old and living at a residential treatment centre in Utah. The last time she spoke to her father was two days earlier on January 8, his 69th birthday, when she said "I told him I loved him and he said it back, and we both knew".
Professionally, Jones launched a fashion clothing line in 2023. In 2025, she released her debut studio album, Xandri, which she wrote, produced and performed herself. Following the album's release, Jones spoke out about being compared to her father, noting she is "not trying to fill his shoes" rather "just trying to find [her] own peace."
Other relationships 1960s
Bowie began a decade-long personal and professional relationship with the singer Dana Gillespie in 1964 when he was 17 and she was 14. Bowie wrote the song "Andy Warhol" for her, Gillespie sang backing vocals on the Ziggy Stardust album (1972), and Bowie and Mick Ronson produced her 1973 album Weren't Born a Man. Bowie ended contact with Gillespie following his split from Angie. Gillespie looked back on her time with David fondly.
Bowie met the dancer Lindsay Kemp in 1967 and enrolled in his dance class at the London Dance Centre. They became lovers and Kemp would be critical in Bowie's artistic development.Meet Lindsay Kemp: David Bowie's muse and lover, BBC Newsnight, 12 May 2016 Kemp later said: "I taught him ... to express himself through his body ... how to touch a public ... just as important was the stillness and to make every movement count."Lindsay Kemp, My Life & Work with David Bowie – in conversation with Marc Almond Commenting in 1972, Bowie said that meeting Kemp was when his interest in image "really blossomed": and that Kemp "lived on his emotions, he was a wonderful influence. His day-to-day life was the most theatrical thing I had ever seen, ever. It was everything I thought Bohemia probably was. I joined the circus." According to the author Paul Trynka, Bowie's relationships with other men were "short-lived and often opportunistic; the thrill was usually in the discovery." When Bowie briefly resided with his former manager Kenneth Pitt in the late 1960s, Pitt recalled having several naked encounters with Bowie, which he said were humorous and not sexual. When asked about Bowie's true sexual orientation, Pitt stated, "I honestly don't know."
In January 1968, Kemp choreographed a dance scene for a BBC play, The Pistol Shot, and used Bowie with a dancer, Hermione Farthingale; the pair began dating and moved into a London flat together. Bowie and Farthingale broke up in early 1969 when she went to Norway to take part in a film, Song of Norway; this affected him, and several songs, such as "Letter to Hermione" and "An Occasional Dream", reference her; and, for the video accompanying his 2013 song "Where Are We Now?", he wore a T-shirt with the words "m/s Song of Norway". Bowie blamed himself for their break-up, saying in 2002 that he "was totally unfaithful and couldn't for the life of me keep it zipped". Farthingale, who spoke of deep affection for him in an interview with the biographer Nicholas Pegg, said they last saw each other in 1970.
After the breakup with Farthingale, and living with his parents, Bowie met the journalist Mary Finnigan in Beckenham, while visiting her upstairs neighbour, Barry. She offered him a cup of tea, tincture of cannabis, and biscuits, then cake and food from the fridge, staying into evening and night, later offering him lodgings for five pounds a week. Bowie briefly dated Finnigan.
1970s David and Angie had an open marriage and dated other people during it: David had relationships with the models Cyrinda Foxe, Lulu, Bebe Buell and the Young Americans backing singer Ava Cherry; Angie had encounters with the Stooges' members Ron Asheton and James Williamson, the Ziggy Stardust Tour bodyguard Anton Jones, and the drummer Roy Martin, which inspired David's 1977 song "Breaking Glass".
1980s In 1983, Bowie briefly dated the New Zealand model Geeling Ng, who starred in the video for "China Girl". While filming The Hunger the same year, Bowie had a sexual relationship with his co-star Susan Sarandon, who stated in 2014: "He's worth idolising. He's extraordinary." Between 1987 and 1990, Bowie dated the Glass Spider Tour dancer Melissa Hurley. The two began their relationship at the end of the tour when she was 22 years old. Bowie's Tin Machine collaborator Kevin Armstrong remembered her as "a genuinely kind, sweet person". She inspired the song "Amazing" on Tin Machine (1989). They announced their engagement in May 1989 but never married; Bowie broke the relationship off during the latter half of the Sound+Vision Tour, primarily due to the age difference—he was 43 at the time. He later spoke of Hurley as "such a wonderful, lovely, vibrant girl".
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