Affair Rumors That Swirled Around Barbra Streisand In The '60s And '70s

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Barbra Streisand has led a colorful love life. Throughout her decades-long career, the EGOT winner has been in high-profile relationships and faced high-profile affair rumors — some of which she later confirmed. During Streisand's marriage to Elliott Gould between 1963 and 1969, she had not one but two highly publicized affairs. The first was with Sydney Chaplin, while co-starring in the Broadway show "Funny Girl" in 1964. The second affair also involved a "Funny Girl" co-star, Omar Sharif, though this time they were filming the movie version in 1968.

In her 2023 memoir, "My Name Is Barbra," Streisand confirmed the affairs, both of which were short-lived. She recalled ending the fling with Charlie Chaplin's son only to become subject to his rage and sabotage. "Sydney's behavior threw me completely," she wrote (via People), adding that she developed stage fright from the experience. The rumored affair with Sharif ended on a more amicable note, even though he remained hung up on her for the rest of his life. "I had the chance to meet his grandson, who said Omar told him: 'Aside from your grandmother, Barbra is the only woman who ever captured my heart,'" she wrote (via Playbill).

And then there's the affair Streisand isn't sure she had. In a 1977 interview with Playboy, she referred to Warren Beatty as "one of my flings" (via People). But she doesn't actually know what happened between them. "I know I slept in the bed with him, but I can't remember if we actually had penetration," she told The New Yorker in 2025. Streisand sure is willing to share a lot about her personal life — but not everything. 

Barbra Streisand is among the celebrities who are close friends with the royal family, but many think her link to King Charles III went beyond that. Streisand met Charles, then the Prince of Wales, during a visit to the Warner Bros. studio when she was recording songs for "Funny Lady" in 1974 (seen above). "He asked to meet me. So he came to the recording studio. I offered him a sip of tea and I thought, 'They didn't have to test me for poison or something?'" she told U.K. presenter Ross King in 2021 (via Us Weekly).

The two became friendly after that. However, shortly after Charles' split from Princess Diana, they sparked affair rumors in 1994 when the then-prince reportedly had a secret meeting with the actor at a hotel in Los Angeles. Streisand has never directly addressed the speculation but has joked about it. "If I had played my cards right, I could have been the first Jewish princess," she snarked during a 2019 London show (via People). What happened there is unclear, but there are other rumors that Streisand has flat-out denied.

For instance, Streisand wanted to make it clear she didn't have an affair with Mandy Patinkin in "Yentl," the 1983 film she wrote, directed, and starred in. That's not to say Patinkin didn't want to. When Streisand confronted him about his sudden change in attitude toward her, she received a pretty direct answer. "I thought we were going to have an affair," she recalled him saying in her memoir. Streisand has lived an interesting life for sure.