Barbra Streisand Says This Famous Ex-Boyfriend Still Tells Her He Loves Her Despite Being Married
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Barbra Streisand’s wide-spanning love life is back in the forefront of our consciousness thanks to her newly-released memoir, My Name Is Barbra, which is revealing many never-heard-before details about her life, her impressive career and romances with stars — one of whom is allegedly still in love with her today!
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In addition to sharing details on her encounter with JFK and her hazy memories about maybe hooking up with another Hollywood icon, Streisand, 81, also discussed her relationship with Don Johnson and their lasting bond.
Johnson, now 73, dated Streisand for about a year from 1987 to 1988 after first meeting over the holidays on a trip to Aspen. “This guy was lean and tan, with an easy grin (and good teeth). His name was Don Johnson, and he was the heartthrob of the moment on the TV series Miami Vice,” Streisand writes. “I have to admit, I’m very attracted to attractive men. (Okay, so I’m superficial!) It’s almost like an aesthetic thing… like a piece of art. I collect!”
The Funny Girl star calls their romance “fun pure fun.” She says Johnson, “loved to move fast, fly high, and play hard.”
“I never dated when I was an adolescent. So I guess you could say I was making up for lost time. And our connection certainly had that adolescent excitement,” she writes. “I felt like a high school girl, going out with the captain of the football team.”
Their high-profile romance is documented in many photos from the time which Streisand says serve as a reminder of how happy she was in their relationship. Yet the media attention added some pressure to the relationship.
“I would have been happier with a little less attention when we went out in public,” Streisand writes. “And looking back I think our best times were actually when we were alone at Don’s house in Aspen. And it was even better when Jesse, his 6-year-old son [whom Johnson shares with Patti D’Arbanville], was there.”
Their relationship began to go down hill when he missed her birthday party due to filming commitments in Calgary. When she went to visit him, she began to see cracks in their romance. “That was a painful visit,” she writes. “I had the sense that Don didn’t really want me there. He was making phone calls from the car as we were driving, talking to other people. And he didn’t want to listen to a demo of our song.”
The song in question is “Till I Loved You,” a duet the pair released during their relationship. While Streisand still loves the song, she says that “somehow it all went wrong.”
“It was Don’s attitude afterward… singing with me apparently made him feel very insecure. And instead of talking about it honestly, he just became very cold, and mistrustful, and angry. I tried to be sympathetic. I certainly had no intention of ruining his career, but it turned out he was concerned about exactly that. It seemed like an overreaction to me, but clearly he was upset, and therefore so was I.”
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Because their romance was lacking “honesty and communication,” it began to deteriorate but she knew it was over when she called Johnson one day and his ex-wife Melanie Griffith answered. Johnson and Griffith went on to rekindle their romance and marry again in 1989 before welcoming their daughter, Dakota Johnson, and splitting for good in 1996.
Streisand writes, “At that point she was in rehab, and Don had conquered his own drug habit and was trying to help. (By the way, I’m not revealing any secrets. Both of them have been very open about it.) I had no problem with him talking to her, but I did have a problem with him not having the courtesy to tell me the truth about their current relationship. I can’t be with a man who is not straight with me emotionally.”
“So that was it. The romance was over, and it was fun while it lasted. I have no regrets.” Johnson, who has been married to Kelley Phleger since 1999, may feel differently according to Streisand’s account. “Thirty years later, I’ll sometimes run into Don at a party given by mutual friends. We hug, and he always whispers in my ear, ‘I love you.’ I don’t say it back.”
Before you go, click here to see all the best celebrity memoirs you can read right now.
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