‘He’s Ever-Present With Me’: Why David Bowie and Iman’s 23-Year Marriage Continues to Inspire
The supermodel—gorgeous as ever at 70—has spoken movingly about her special bond with the late rock icon
When the shape-shifting, wildly influential rock star David Bowie passed away in 2016, music fans around the world went into mourning. Years after his shocking death, his undeniable impact on music and style remains. While Bowie will always be most associated with artsy ’70s and ’80s anthems like “Changes,” “Space Oddity,” “Fame” and “Let’s Dance,” he remained an icon through the ’90s and beyond, and in 1992, he became half of the preeminent rock star/model power couple when he married Iman.
Like Bowie, Iman is a groundbreaking figure—she was one of the first Black models to achieve the coveted “super” prefix, and in 1994 she launched her namesake makeup line, which was one of the first to put the needs of women of color front and center. The two charismatic and culture-shifting celebrities were married until Bowie’s untimely death from liver cancer at age 69.
In the entertainment industry, long-lasting marriages are few and far between, and while Bowie and Iman were both larger-than-life figures, their marriage was grounded in love and respect, and the model, who’s recently been trending after turning 70 and still looking stunning as ever, has spoken movingly about the special bond they shared.
Read on to see some of the sweetest moments from Bowie and Iman’s legendary love story.
Bowie and Iman fell in love at first sight . . . or at least, one of them did
Bowie and Iman met in 1990 when they were set up on a blind date in L.A. (imagine arriving at a blind date and discovering the guy is David Bowie!). In an interview with People, Iman slyly recalled, “David said it was love at first sight. It took me a few months, but I got there.” Their connection felt fated from the start—Iman didn’t really want to live in L.A., and intended to move there only briefly, but as she tells it, “I personally believe now that was my destiny. My destiny was calling me to get there so I could meet David.”
In a 2000 interview with Hello! magazine following the birth of their daughter, Alexandria (who is now following in her parents’ creative footsteps as a musician and artist), Bowie himself said, “that she would be my wife, in my head, was a done deal. I’d never gone after anything in my life with such passion. I just knew she was the one.”
After their first date, Iman traveled to Paris to walk in a fashion show, and Bowie ordered flowers to her hotel room and greeted her at the airport upon her return. “He properly wooed me,” she admitted in the People interview.
Bowie and Iman shared values and goals
Both Bowie and Iman had been previously married with children, and Bowie was over two decades into his artistic career when they met, so he was looking to settle down. As Iman put it to The New York Times, “we knew what we wanted from each other,” and their complementary senses of maturity, grace and humility kept the relationship going. “I know my identity, and David knew his. When we met, we agreed on living life with a purpose,” she said.
What the celebrity couple had was rare indeed, and Iman has repeatedly said that she doesn’t plan to remarry. Speaking to InStyle, she charmingly revealed that Bowie was equally devoted to small gestures, like tying her shoes shortly after they met, and big ones, like buying her a Birkin bag, and said, “When people say ‘oh, your late husband,’ I always correct them. He is my husband. Not my late husband. He’s ever-present with me. It’s because he has left an impact in my life. He was the perfect person for me and I’m happy that I was able to experience that in my lifetime. And I wish for everybody to have that one time in their life.”
Bowie and Iman’s attraction was legendary
Bowie and Iman were an obviously gorgeous couple, and their chemistry was off the charts. “My attraction to her was immediate and all-encompassing. I couldn’t sleep for the excitement of our first date,” Bowie told Hello! (he also called her “intolerably sexy” in a TV clip). The feeling was absolutely mutual. In her People interview, Iman recalled, “David was beyond handsome. He oozed charisma.” When the two of them were together, she felt “cherished and safe,” and he felt “blissfully happy,” as he said in a TV interview.
Bowie and Iman’s relationship was anything but superficial. The couple deeply inspired one another, and much of Bowie’s 1993 album Black Tie White Noise was conceived as a tribute to Iman. When asked about his greatest achievement, the musician simply said, “Marrying my wife.”
Bowie and Iman kept each other down to earth
Bowie and Iman made their home together in New York City, where they enjoyed a surprisingly low-key existence. As Iman told The Guardian while he was alive, “David is even more of a homebody than I am. At least I go to parties once in a while.”
Bowie had years of rock star excess behind him, and when he married Iman, the two made a commitment to keep the spotlight out of their personal lives. “David and I were both very protective of our privacy,” Iman said in her New York Times interview after his death. “There were certain things nobody else was going to see. Our house, our bedroom, our daughter have always been off limits.”
While both Bowie and Iman were known for their glamor, they didn’t get caught up in the whirlwind of celebrity. As Iman said in her interview with The Guardian, “I fell in love with David Jones [Bowie’s birth name]. I did not fall in love with David Bowie. Bowie is just a persona. He’s a singer, an entertainer. David Jones is a man I met.”
Even we non-celebrities can relate to Iman’s desire to feel a sense of peace in her relationship. “Our focus was on each other, what belonged to us and our daughter,” she told The New York Times. Bowie and Iman’s love was the stuff of fairytales, and while he’s no longer with us, Iman has carried on his legacy beautifully.
Conversation
All comments are subject to our Community Guidelines. Woman's World does not endorse the opinions and views shared by our readers in our comment sections. Our comments section is a place where readers can engage in healthy, productive, lively, and respectful discussions. Offensive language, hate speech, personal attacks, and/or defamatory statements are not permitted. Advertising or spam is also prohibited.
