Onstage, David Bowie was Ziggy Stardust, but to his wife, with whom he shared life for
26 years, international supermodel Iman, he was simply David Jones. This is the truth
about David Bowie and Iman's relationship.
The iconic Ziggy Stardust persona came not only from the creative mind of David Bowie
himself, but also from his first wife, Angie. The pair married in 1970, at the beginning
of David's career, and she encouraged him to embrace his eccentricity and incorporate
it into his onstage identity.
The marriage quickly grew fiery — according to the Evening Standard, David once said that
living with Angie was, quote, "like living with a blowtorch". According to the Mirror,
Angie later claimed David had forced her into an open marriage, and that he had, quote,
"the instincts of a bisexual alleycat." She also said they had a threesome the night before
they got married, and that she once caught him in bed with Mick Jagger. The couple divorced
in 1980.
As for Iman, she first married in 1973, when she was only 18 years old, according to TooFab.
The groom was Somali entrepreneur and hotelier Hassan, who shared Iman's love of fine living
and having only one name. Their marriage ended two years later, shortly after Iman moved
to the United States to pursue modeling. She then moved on to a decade-long marriage to
basketball player Spencer Haywood from 1977 to 1987.
Angie Bowie blamed the deterioration of her marriage to David Bowie on his use of illicit
substances. She told the Evening Standard:
"As soon as we started to do well, David started to take drugs."
In the wake of the divorce in the early 1980s, Bowie's career thrived, while his personal
life was in tatters. After performing to thunderous applause from huge crowds every night, he'd
return to the empty silence of a hotel room. Teddy Antolin, Bowie's hair stylist and friend,
told the Mirror:
"David was very lonely. It was so sad — all this hard work David did each day and then
he was alone."
Meeting Iman prompted Bowie to sober up. Antolin explained:
"He decided, 'I met her, I'm changing my life, I've got to impress this woman and step up
[…] He did everything to change any kind of bad habits he had and it was remarkable
because David never had a drink after that or anything."
One night in 1990, Bowie pulled up to Teddy Antolin's dinner party in Los Angeles in a
white Ford Mustang, wearing head-to-toe white denim. Iman, who had recently retired from
modeling, arrived at the same party in a black Mercedes, decked out in head-to-toe black
leather. Antolin immediately knew it was a sign. He recalled to the Mirror:
"I thought, 'What could be more perfect?'"
As it turned out, Antolin had invited Iman to the party and convinced Bowie to fly to
L.A. for the occasion, all for the purpose of setting them up. He introduced the model
to the musician, and sparks immediately flew. He told the Mirror:
"[They] looked at each other and it was love at first sight, you could feel the electricity,
something went off. They spent the night talking to each other like they had known each other
forever. They were looking at each other like, 'Now what, shall we skip dessert and go home?'"
In an interview with ET, Bowie gave his own short summary of the evening:
"I found her intolerably sexy."
At the time he met Iman, David Bowie was 43 years old. He had been single for a decade,
and he knew exactly what he wanted. He told Hello! in 2000:
"My attraction to her was immediate and all-encompassing. I couldn't sleep for the excitement of our
first date. That she would be my wife, in my head, was a done deal. I'd never gone after
anything [...] with such passion in all my life. I just knew she was the one."
The day after they met at Antolin's dinner party, he eagerly invited her out for afternoon
tea — a move he later described as "corny" during an interview with ET.
"He was so nervous, he just said 'tea.' He doesn't drink tea! He never drinks tea. He
had coffee."
Iman's second marriage had ended three years prior, and it took a couple of weeks for the
then-35-year-old to consider committing to the rock legend. She told The Guardian in
2014:
"I was not ready for a relationship. Definitely, I didn't want to get into a relationship with
somebody like him."
But it was Bowie's "corny" moves that showed Iman the man beyond the rock and roll persona.
By 1990, David Bowie had released around 20 albums, and starred in around 20 film and
television roles. The pinnacle of his career, in its whirlwind blur of glamor and chaos,
was largely behind him, and he set out to prove to Iman that he was ready for the stardust
to settle. In a 2011 interview with The Cut, Iman said:
"His actions spoke louder [than words]. We were dating for two weeks and I was coming
from Paris and I got to L.A. at the airport and the doors open to the plane and I come
out and I see all these people taking a picture of somebody. And he was standing there, flowers
in hand, no security. That was when I knew he was a keeper. He didn't care if anyone
saw."
As Iman saw Bowie's sincere intentions, and got to know the man behind them, her reserve
melted away. She told The Guardian:
"I fell in love with David Jones. 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."
A couple of years before David Bowie and Iman were married, a ring caught her eye in Florence,
Italy, as she later recalled during an interview with ET. Before he proposed, Bowie flew to
Florence to buy the ring, only to find that someone else had already bought it. He tracked
down the buyer, paid them handsomely, and secured the ring.
But the first time Bowie proposed to Iman, she turned him down. According to The Mirror,
she insisted that they meet each another's family first. Once that was taken care of,
he whisked her off to Paris and proposed to her on the banks of the River Seine, Iman
explained:
"It was sweet. And, of course, I said yes."
Because they had two proposals, it was only natural for Bowie and Iman to have two weddings.
The first was a civil ceremony in Switzerland on April 24, 1992. According to Brides Magazine,
no one was in attendance except the bride, the groom, a witness, and an interpreter.
In June of that year, the couple threw a second — and more extravagant — wedding celebration
in Italy. In a 2013 interview with Naomi Campbell for Interview Magazine, Iman said that one
of the most "memorable moments" from her wedding was the pouring rain — a sign of good luck.
She recalled:
"[People] said, 'Oh, you shouldn't complain, you're going to be married for 50 years, it's
going to be happy. And they were right."
David Bowie and Iman both became step-parents when they got married, according to Express.
Bowie became a stepfather to Zulekha Haywood, Iman's daughter with Spencer Haywood, and
Iman became a stepmother to Duncan Jones, formerly named Zowie, Bowie's son with his
first wife, Angie.
On August 15, 2000, Bowie and Iman welcomed their first and only child together, Alexandria
"Lexi" Jones. Bowie told The New York Daily News in 2002:
"I'm frighteningly happy. I don't see ever wanting to change things in my personal life.
Iman and I are very happy, and we have the most fabulous baby."
In her 2013 interview with Naomi Campbell, Iman reflected on her and Bowie's contrasting
parenting styles:
"David is measured, sensible yet at the same time fun and relaxed with Lexi. I'm the disciplinarian!"
According to ELLE, Lexi is now an artist who sells her original cartoons and customized
clothing online. In May 2020, The Sun reported that she had moved to Los Angeles to be closer
to her half-brother, Duncan Jones, who is a successful movie director — though Lexi
stays out of the Hollywood scene. A source told ELLE:
"She's a great kid and very down-to-earth. Most of her friends are also studying art
and they spend their time vintage shopping, going to exhibitions and hanging out by the
beach."
Iman and David Bowie waited two years after meeting to get married, but it wasn't because
they weren't sure they loved each other. Instead, they fell in love so quickly that they questioned
their own judgment. In a 1996 interview with The Telegraph, Bowie recalled:
"When I met Iman it was just so instantaneous. It was really one of those overnight things.
In fact, it was so overnight we knew we should wait a couple of years before we got married,
to make sure we weren't kidding ourselves. And fortunately we weren't. It's just been
such a joy."
After he married Iman, Bowie made it clear that his marriage meant more to him than his
career did. He told ET:
"If there was a choice between one or the other there's no question."
As he grew older, he was often asked what he thought his greatest achievement was. According
to Metro, in 1995 he told a music writer:
"Marrying my wife. That's the most successful thing I ever did in my life."
When the writer clarified that he was referring to Bowie's music career, the musician reportedly
"scoffed" and said, quote, "Nothing else counts."
In a 2010 appearance on The Nate Berkus Show, Iman said:
"My marriage is exactly as fabulous as you all would think. He's fun, he's a really very
curious man, and so I really learn a lot from him."
In a 2010 interview with Harper's Bazaar, Iman said her fighting dynamic with Bowie
was key to their marital success:
"What attracted me to David [is that] he is a gentle soul. [...] He is English, so he
just stays quiet. I'm the screamer. Then he always makes me laugh. It's like cabaret.
I keep him entertained too. I still fancy him — totally! — after all these years."
Their shared sense of humor kept their marriage strong in spite of their differences.
"He's English, so of course he has a very witty sense of humor, and basically we found
each other at the right time of our lives."
David Bowie died of liver cancer on January 11, 2016, at the age of 69. He had been married
to Iman for 24 years. In 2020, the model told Porter Magazine:
"I get the fans' grief, but it's not the same. They have lost someone they look up to; we
have lost a husband and a father. And sometimes, I don't want people to know how sad I am.
[...] I'm not strong – I am just trying to keep it together."
Despite their vow of "til death do us part," Iman has made it clear her love for Bowie
outlives even the man himself. She told Porter:
"I will never remarry. I mentioned my husband the other day with someone, and they said
to me: 'You mean your late husband?' I said, no, he is always going to be my husband. I
do feel very lonely. But do I want a relationship? I can't say never, but no, not now."
Quoting Bowie's song "Tonight" on Instagram in January 2016, Iman wrote:
"I will love you til I die, I will see you in the sky."
In another post honoring Bowie after his death, she wrote:
"My favorite love story is ours."