Bruce Springsteen might not be where he is now if not for the support of his wife Patti Scialfa. The legendary “Born to Run” singer married the fellow singer-songwriter in 1991, and they share three kids together, Evan James, 35, Jessica Rae, 33, and Samuel Ryan, 31. Now, in the lead up to the highly-anticipated release to his biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, starring Jeremy Allen White, the New Jersey native is doing some reflection on his long-running career, and long-running marriage.
In a wide-ranging interview with TIME ahead of the October 24 release of the film, Bruce opened up about the period in his life in which his first marriage, to actress Julianne Phillips, ended, and his marriage to Patti, who he met in the early 1980s and who in 1984 joined his E Street Band, began. He and Julianne were married from 1985 to 1989, and his 1987 album Tunnel of Love songs about relationship instability and intimacy.
© Getty“I knew she saw me for who I really was,” confessing he was a “complicated, messy person.” He further shared: “I didn’t have to pretend. I was broken. She was broken in her own way, and we were each other’s personal projects.”
In a 1995 interview with The Advocate, addressing his decision to marry Patti, Bruce also said: “I went through a divorce, and it was really difficult and painful and I was very frightened about getting married again. So part of me said, ‘Hey, what does it matter?’ But it does matter. It’s very different than just living together. First of all, stepping up publicly — which is what you do: You get your license, you do all the social rituals — is a part of your place in society and in some way part of society’s acceptance of you … Patti and I both found that it did mean something.”
Though Bruce has in many ways become largely synonymous with his home state of New Jersey, he and his wife raised their three children in Los Angeles. Speaking about his 2017 book Springsteen on Broadway with the New York Times, he said: “It’s one of the things that I’m sort of glad it exists. Just for your kids — your kids really don’t know much about your life, you know?”
© Getty“We had our kids late, I was 40 when our first son was born, and they showed a healthy disinterest in our work over all the years,” he went on, though noted: “They had their own musical heroes, they had their own music they were interested in. They’d be pretty blank-faced if someone mentioned a song title of mine, and I always looked upon that as that we did a good job. I know that none of my kids have read the book, though I imagine someday they will perhaps. I kind of like that.”
© GettyBruce’s first son Evan, who was born a year prior to him marrying Patti, graduated from Boston College in 2012, and though he has worked as a musician, he is the most private of the three siblings.
© InstagramJessica grew up a professional equestrian and in 2021, she competed in the postponed 2021 Summer Olympics as part of Team USA. As of that year, she was in a relationship with fellow equestrian Lorenzo De Luca. The youngest Springsteen, Samuel, is a firefighter, and in 2022, he welcomed daughter Lily Harper, making Bruce and Patti first-time grandparents.
