Paul Simon's Ex-Wives: How Many Times Has The Singer Been Married?
This article contains mentions of drug misuse.
Paul Simon has been married to Edie Brickell for more than three decades. When the Simon & Garfunkel singer exchanged vows with Brickell in May 1992, he was already 50 and she was just 26. By then, Simon was beyond famous and had done and seen pretty much everything. He was ready to settle. Brickell, for her part, fell for Simon the moment she saw him. That was in November 1988, when she performed on "Saturday Night Live" with the New Bohemians.
"I kind of messed up the last chorus because I saw Paul Simon standing there and I just lost it," Brickell told the Washington Post following the performance. Simon and Brickell started their family seven months after tying the knot, when they welcomed their son, Adrian, in December 1992. They expanded the brood in April 1995 with the birth of Lulu, and completed their family in May 1998 with the addition of Gabriel. Simon and Brickell's marriage hasn't been perfect, however.
In 2014, they were arrested on disorderly conduct charges following a domestic dispute, CNN reported. The charges were later dropped and the singers dismissed it as a case of a "rare argument" between them. "Edie and I are fine," Simon told the judge. "We're going to see our son's baseball game this afternoon." Simon's marriage has survived the test of time, which might give off the impression that he's had an uneventful love life. But that's not the case — Simon actually had quite a bit of practice.
Paul Simon has been married three times
Before settling down with Edie Brickell, Paul Simon famously dated Carrie Fisher, a relationship with enough twists and turns to fill a book. Simon and Fisher met when a still unknown Fisher was filming George Lucas's 1977 epic "Star Wars." Simon was living with "The Shining" star Shelley Duvall, who was supposedly responsible for introducing Simon to her friend, according to a 1981 People report.
The relationship was marked by ups and downs, with many arguing Fisher's drug addiction was the biggest culprit. But Fisher disagrees on how big a role it played. "It wasn't like that at all," she told the Washington Post in 1987. "It was an issue, but it wasn't the issue. There are so many things that make a relationship go wrong." During one of their breaks, Fisher agreed to marry Dan Aykroyd in 1980. "But then I got back together with Paul Simon," the late actor told the Chicago Tribune in 2008.
Despite their issues, Simon and Fisher tied the knot in 1983, only to get divorced less than two years later. While a divorce is generally the end of a couple for many, that's just not how Simon and Fisher roll. They continued to date through the 1980s, ending their romance around the time Simon got with Brickell. "No, we didn't remarry. We dated again. Which is exactly what you want to do after you've been married and divorced," she wrote in her 2008 memoir "Wishful Drinking."
If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
Paul Simon married his manager's wife
Before Carrie Fisher, Paul Simon was married to Peggy Harper. Like many of his following relationships, it had a complicated start. When Simon met her, Harper was the wife of Mort Lewis, the manager of his and Art Garfunkel's massively successful duo Simon & Garfunkel, according to Marc Eliot's 2010 biography, "Paul Simon: A Life." After pursuing the former flight attendant in a manner Eliot described as "relentless," he won her over.
Simon and Peggy tied the knot in 1969, shortly before the contentious end of Simon & Garfunkel. In September 1972, the couple welcomed their son, Harper, pictured above. Their relationship was revitalized by the boy's birth, but the issues that preceded him didn't go anywhere. "The marriage didn't solve the loneliness ... I didn't understand that you had to work at problems. I wanted the marriage to solve my problems," Simon said, according to Robert Hilburn's 2018 biography, "Paul Simon: The Life."
They split in January 1974, when Simon became increasingly irritated at Peggy for interrupting while he was trying to listen to Stevie Wonder's 1973 album, "Innervisions." By the third interruption, Simon stood up and left, Hilburn wrote. Though Harper knew they had differences, she was caught off-guard by the divorce. "It's not that I thought we had this fairy-tale relationship. In some ways, we were living in different worlds. Even so, I had no idea he wanted out of the marriage," she said. The divorce became final in 1975.