Month after This Pic of Barbra Streisand Ryan O’Neal, She Got Divorced — Now She Turns 81 in Arms of Her True Love

Barbra Streisand turns 81! The singer’s personal life — including her divorce from her first husband a month after her photo with costar Ryan O’Neal surfaced — has always been a source of fascination for her fans. Today, she has so much to celebrate, including her enviable marriage to her second husband, motherhood, and grandmotherhood.

“Funny Girl” star Barbra Streisand is 81! As she enters a new chapter of her life, the world watches her personal life as intently as they always have.

Streisand grew up in a less-than-pleasant home, with a mother who discouraged her acting dream and a stepfather who openly disliked her.

Streisand’s father died when she was only 15 months old, and her childhood was never the same. Even though she had the voice of a songbird, the neighborhood would often refer to her as the girl without a father.

She shared a cramped Brooklyn apartment with her grandparents, mother, and brother. And while life was hard then, it worsened when her mother remarried. Despite all efforts to get her stepfather to like her, the “All I Ask Of You” singer remained unappreciated in her own home.

She would run to bring his slippers whenever he came home or crawl in front of the TV so she would not distract her stepfather as he watched. And because her mother had said he was color-blind, Streisand would point at stuff and describe them by color, but that, too, wasn’t enough. While she thought she was helping, her father would say:

“Why don’t you be more like your friend—quiet?”

Her mother, Diana Ida (née Rosen), was not any kinder to her. The singer recalls when she first started acting, and instead of her mother encouraging her to pursue her dream, she discouraged her, saying that her arms were too skinny to be an actress.

Her mother wanted her to become a school secretary like herself because it was a steady job with paid vacations and summers off. But it later dawned on her that her mother longed to be famous.

Ida had a beautiful soprano voice and once considered pursuing a music career but became a school secretary instead. Streisand believed it was her failed dream that pushed her to discourage her daughter.

Streisand confessed that while she may have felt unloved as a child, she believes her mother loved her in the only way she knew how. She feels her mother discouraged her acting dreams because she did not want her to face rejection.

At 16, Streisand moved out of her home to study acting, and a few years later, she arrived in Hollywood, looking incredibly different than she does now. However, a short while after arriving in Hollywood, she would have several changes made to her face, like getting her teeth capped, her nose fixed, and even changing her name.

She had several stints performing as a singer in New York nightclubs breaking through with her first role in “I Can Get it For You Wholesale” in 1962. Soon she landed many more gigs, including appearances on evening talk shows and her debut album “The Barbra Streisand Album,” which won three Grammys.

By 1964, she had made so much progress in the industry and even bought her first car — a secondhand 1959 Bentley.

In addition to her career success, she also found love after meeting Elliott Gould. Gould was a shy, withdrawn kid, but his parents were keen on him becoming an actor. They enrolled him in a song and dance school, and at 23, he landed the lead role in the Broadway musical, “I Can Get It For You Wholesale.”

There he met Sterisand, then 19, who played his secretary. Gould explained that after Streisand’s last audition, she stood there and announced her phone number, asking them to call her about the role. Gould called her, and the two began going out and later married.

They soon cemented their place as the “it” couple. Streisand became a superstar, while Gould landed back-to-back breakout roles. Shortly after, the two had their first and only child, son Jason, who would come to be known as the million-dollar baby.

Jason made headlines long before he was born. In 1966, Streisand planned a 20-city concert tour that would earn her approximately one million dollars, a staggering amount at the time.

However, she found out she was pregnant that spring and had to cancel the concert. The cancellation brought a lot of attention, leading to her baby being branded the million-dollar baby, a term Streisand found crass and offensive.

Even so, Streisand seemed satisfied with the show’s cancellation and explained that a stage performance was not something tangible. “You do it, and it’s gone forever,” she said. A child, however, was a definite success, and she was more than happy to cancel the concert and bring forth her baby boy.

Streisand Had an Enviable Family Life That Came Crashing Down Eight Years Later

For a long while after Streisand and Gould tied the knot, life was good. They had a wonderful family life, and welcoming their son added to their joy.

Unfortunately, the enviable union ended eight years after they got together. Asked what caused the divorce, Gould shared that they had grown apart. Because of her booming career, Streisand had become more important than their relationship. He reflected that his wife’s skyrocketing career made it hard for them to grow together, leading to their separation in 1969.

However, a month before the divorce, Streisand was photographed with her costar Ryan O’Neal at a screening of the film “Wild Rovers.” The two looked cozy, with O’Neal holding Streisand’s hand as the actress held a flower in her other hand.

At the time, little was known about their relationship, but it was later reported that they dated in the early 70s. Streisand would later describe O’Neal as “so perfect.” A month after the controversial photo came out, Streisand and Gould made their divorce final.

Even though she lost her role as a wife following her divorce, she never once lost touch with motherhood. That same year she and Gould went their separate ways; she celebrated Christmas with her son in Las Vegas.

She focused more on being a mom to her son and would take him to her shows and other events. Even as a young adult, Jason would accompany his mom to red-carpet events, and in 2017, he posted a throwback photo of his first — and last — Oscar event to attend. The image captured Streisand and Jason holding hands with the caption:

“Do I look thrilled?”

Over the years, Streisand has been a great support to her son. She considers him bright, kind, sensitive, caring, and a good person. And besides being an all-round person, he is also a gifted actor and filmmaker.

Streisand counts herself blessed to have nurtured him and is incredibly proud of who he has become. She said her only wish is for him not to be anything other than what he is.

“My only wish for my son, Jason, is that he continues to experience a rich life of love, happiness, joy, and fulfillment, both creatively and personally,” she added.

Finding Love Again — Streisand’s Life Today

Even though Gould went on to find love soon after their divorce — he married Jennifer Bogart in 1973, split briefly in 1975, and remarried again in 1978 before divorcing a final time in 1979 — it took Streisand a long while to find love again.

However, in 1996, she was set up on a blind date with James Brolin. The date was a dinner party with mutual friends, including Streisand’s ex-boyfriend Jon Peters.

Streisand retold how she’d been so shy on the first date that she went into the house and went downstairs to play with the children until she had to sit at the table.

She also revealed how she made fun of Brolin’s hair that first night. She had expected a guy with brown wavy hair and a beard like a mountain man, but instead, Brolin had all his hair cut off and no beard. She recalls walking up to him and running her hand through his head, asking who had messed up his hair.

Brolin thought he had met his match and was impressed with her honesty. He disclosed that once they got to talking, no one else got a chance to speak to either of them throughout the night.

He later drove her home, and they stayed up talking until 3 a.m. They then stood in the foyer, undecided on whether to shake hands or kiss, as they were both very shy.

Brolin would later reveal that he knew within minutes that Streisand was the woman for him. When asked how long it took to realize they were meant to be, Streisand said it took her some time, but she always went to sleep smiling. However, it was instantaneous for Brolin, and he recalls:

“I knew ten minutes later. I feel like we were married from the moment we sat down there.”

Their chemistry was so strong that they got engaged a few months after their first meeting. And Streisand had nothing but good things to say about Brolin.

She described him as not only a lover and her best friend but also the man that filled a void left by her father. She felt safe with him. But more than that, he supported her in all her endeavors.

On the second anniversary of their first date, Streisand and Brolin walked down the aisle on the ocean-view lawn of her former Malibu home. The bride looked gorgeous in a shimmering crystal-beaded Donna Karan gown with a 15-foot diaphanous veil.

The wedding, attended by 105 guests, included Hollywood bigwigs such as John Travolta, Kelly Preston, Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, record producer Quincy Jones, and director Sydney Pollack. Travolta remembered it as the most beautiful wedding he had ever been to, confessing that he and his late wife Preston cried.

The venue was alive with 4000 roses, 2500 stephanotis, 500 gardenias, and 200 lilies, and the music was a beautiful 16-piece orchestra conducted by composer and Streisand’s personal friend Marvin Hamlisch. Following the nuptials, Brolin hugged his family and expressed his excitement about the day, saying:

“I’m the happiest person in the world.”

It was no different for Streisand, and her longtime friend Marilyn Bergman thought she’d never seen the actress as happy as she was on her special day:

“In all the years I’ve known Barbra, I’ve seen her happy but always with a cloud. This time it was a clear blue sky.”

The evening of the gorgeous wedding, the pair packed up for their brief honeymoon in the Channel Islands off Santa Barbara. It was short, as Brolin had to return to work, but the honeymoon mood has never died. Not only was the wedding bliss but so has been their marriage so many years later.

Over the years, Streisand has commemorated their big day with emotional throwback tributes to their big day. In 2016, she posted a photo of her and Brolin dancing on their wedding day captioned:

“#HappyAnniversary Barbra & Jim! 20 years together… and 18 years married.”

As she celebrates 81 years of life, she still looks gorgeous and has so much to be grateful for. She is still happily married to Brolin, and like wine, their union only gets better with age.

She is also still a wonderful mother to Jason and believes nothing is better than being a mother. For Mother’s Day 2022, she posted a cute mother-son photo captioned:

“Nothing better than being a mother! Happy Mother’s Day, ladies.”

Even as she counts her blessings, she relishes her role as a doting grandmother to Jason’s daughter. A post on the singer’s Instagram in 2019 shows how much she adores being a grandma. She wrote:

“We were at a restaurant, but the most delicious thing was my granddaughter Westlyn!”

As any grandma would, Streisand also gets excited about her granddaughter’s milestones and, in 2020, disclosed that Westlyn’s first word was “hat,” just like Jason’s.

Now, she enjoys rescuing dogs alongside her husband and spending time with their friends. And even after so many years together, they still display a teenage-like love for each other that does not seem to fade as the years pass.

Even as Streisand celebrates yet another milestone, she seems even more content with the blessings life has brought her, and her curious fans can only wish her many more wins ahead.

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