Joni Mitchell’s Loves & Losses: Husbands, Heartbreaks and the Daughter Who Inspired a Timeless Song
Learn about her relationships with Leonard Cohen, David Crosby, Graham Nash, James Taylor, Jackson Browne and more
Joni Mitchell has enchanted countless listeners with her gorgeous voice, poetic lyrics and distinctive guitar-playing, and over the years her personal life has garnered almost as much attention as her legendary music. Mitchell dated many of her fellow musical luminaries and wrote some of her most famous songs about them, and in turn, a number of them wrote songs inspired by her.
Read on for a look at Mitchell’s personal life, from the fellow folk singers she dated to her two marriages to the poignant story of her only child.
Joni Mitchell’s short-lived first marriage
Joni (née Roberta Joan Anderson), met Chuck Mitchell, a musician who became her collaborator, when she was an unknown performer playing at small clubs and coffee houses. She and Mitchell married in 1965 when she was 21, but their relationship was rocky, and the singer called him her “first major exploiter.” The couple divorced in 1967, and she wrote the 1968 song “I Had a King” about their troubled marriage.
Joni Mitchell’s musical love life
After her divorce, Mitchell became a key player in the singer-songwriter revolution of the ’60s and ’70s, and she stood out as one of the most prominent female musicians in a primarily male-dominated genre.
The folk world was small, and Mitchell interacted with the majority of the musicians in the scene. Unsurprisingly, she also dated some of them, and her list of boyfriends included Leonard Cohen, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, and both David Crosby and Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
Leonard Cohen
In 1967, Mitchell had a brief but musically rewarding relationship with Leonard Cohen, who was known for being a ladies’ man. One of her most famous songs, “A Case of You” (1971) was rumored to be written about their love (some have also speculated it was about Mitchell’s relationship with Graham Nash or James Taylor), and her song “Rainy Night House” (1970) was inspired by their breakup.
David Crosby
Mitchell also dated David Crosby, who produced her debut album, in 1967. Mitchell called their relationship a “summer affair” and said, “It was never serious, but it was sweet.”
She went on to write two songs about their relationship, “The Dawntreader” (1968) and “That Song About the Midway” (1969). The latter song was written after their relationship ended due to Crosby having an affair, and Mitchell first played it for him twice in a row during a crowded, musician-filled party, in a serious power move for the confessional lyricist.
Graham Nash
After breaking up with Crosby, Mitchell dated his bandmate Graham Nash, and their romance inspired Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s dreamy 1970 hit “Our House.” However, their love didn’t last, and Nash later said that most of the sad songs he wrote were about her.
Reflecting on their relationship, Mitchell said, “Graham was a sweetheart, but he needed a more traditional female. He loved me dearly, but he wanted a stay-at-home wife to raise his children.” She wrote the songs “Willy” (1970) and “My Old Man” (1971) about their time together.
James Taylor
Mitchell had a yearlong relationship with James Taylor in 1970. The two folk stars performed together and Taylor played guitar on her iconic 1971 album Blue. Some of the songs on that album, including the title track, “This Flight Tonight” and “All I Want,” were written about him.
Taylor wrote the song “You Can Close Your Eyes” about her that same year, and she then penned two songs about the difficult end of their relationship, “See You Sometime” and “Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire,” for her 1972 album For the Roses. Taylor has said that the songs Mitchell wrote in the wake of their breakup remain so emotionally devastating he still can’t listen to them.
Jackson Browne
Mitchell then embarked on a turbulent relationship with Jackson Browne. When it ended, she was rumored to have attempted suicide, and her 1974 song “Car on a Hill” was about the painful end of their affair. He wrote the song “Fountain of Sorrow” about her that same year.
As the ’70s continued, Mitchell was briefly linked to Hollywood bachelor extraordinaire Warren Beatty, actor and writer Sam Shepard and Glenn Frey of the Eagles.
Mitchell’s many romantic and creative partnerships could fill a book, and looking back in a rare 2020 interview, she said her view on love has remained consistent over the years. As she put it, “It’s still the same. I make the same mistake over and over again, and I’m just a fool for love . . . I’ve loved quite a few people, and by that I mean I really feel happy in their company. That’s pretty much it—the joy of someone’s company. That’s what I call love.”
Joni Mitchell’s 12-year second marriage
In 1982, Mitchell married musician and producer Larry Klein, but their relationship declined after she suffered a miscarriage. Klein produced her albums Dog Eat Dog (1985) and Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm (1988) and after their divorce in 1994 he continued to produce some of her later work. While they still collaborated after splitting, Mitchell didn’t have nice things to say about their 12-year marriage, calling him a “puffed up . . . dwarf.”
Joni Mitchell’s daughter: A journey to reconnection
Mitchell never had children with any of the musicians she dated or married. When she was 20, she dropped out of college due to an unplanned pregnancy, and decided to give her daughter, Kelly Dale Anderson, up for adoption. She was traumatized by the experience, saying, “The main thing at the time was to conceal [the pregnancy]. The scandal was so intense. A daughter could do nothing more disgraceful. It ruined you in a social sense. You have no idea what the stigma was. It was like you murdered somebody.”
Kelly was adopted at eight months old and renamed Kilauren, and while Mitchell didn’t see her again for many years, she loomed large in her life, and she wrote the heartbreaking 1971 song “Little Green” about her.
Looking back at why she didn’t have children later on, Mitchell said, “It seemed like there was never a good time to have a baby. I think part of the difficulty was finding a man who wanted a child. It was a very irresponsible time in general for that generation. It was the whole Peter Pan syndrome.”
In 1997, Mitchell and her biological daughter reunited, and they’ve shared a close bond ever since then. The musician said putting up her child for adoption “left a hole in me that I didn’t fill until the day I saw her again,” and revealed that once they connected decades later, she immediately felt that they had much in common, including a “crazy bravado.”
Joni Mitchell’s personal life is as fascinating as her art, and the songs she’s created from her epic romances, crushing breakups and sense of personal loss will forever be some of the most timeless anthems of the ’60s and ’70s.
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.
