Who Was Bruce Springsteen’s Famous First Wife?
Are you looking for a reason (beyond his legendary music career and everlasting connection with generations of fans) why you should be inspired by Bruce Springsteen? Look no further than his 30-plus-year marriage to life partner and E Street Band member Patti Scialfa.
However, those who have followed Bruce’s long-lasting love story may have forgotten about an earlier chapter — his marriage to his first wife. So what happened, and where is the blond starlet Julianne Phillips (now age 64) now?
Small-Town Girl Julianne Phillips
Phillips’ birth name was Julianne Smith, and she was born in Evanston, Illinois, one of six children. Her family relocated to the affluent Portland suburb of Lake Oswego, where she lived before moving on to Brooks College in Long Beach, California.
“I grew up in a relatively sheltered environment, in a small town with four brothers and a sister. A very close-knit family, being the youngest, and they all stayed in that vicinity,” Phillips said in a 1989 interview. She had the spark to move to California.
After graduating, Phillips returned to Oregon and started working in local community theater, leading to her signing with Elite Modeling Agency in 1982 after being categorized as a “perfect-ten package.”
She found opportunities to work in both New York and Los Angeles, appearing in 1984’s Summer Fantasy and then the 1984 made-for-TV movie His Mistress (in which she starred alongside Robert Urich), and music videos such as 38 Special’s “If I’d Been the One” and later in a certain Jersey-born superstar’s “Glory Days” (she appears at the end of the video).
Bruce Springsteen’s First Love and Marriage
Phillips and Springsteen first connected in October 1984 and were married just six short months later in Lake Oswego shortly after midnight on Monday, May 13, 1985, an event that garnered a ton of media coverage.
Just after Springsteen’s epic Born to Run tour, he settled down with Phillips. She was 10 years younger than the 35-year-old rocker. In his biography, he reflected on his first marriage, admitting his faults, recalling a dinner out: “As we politely chatted by candlelight, hand in hand, a part of me tried to convince myself she was simply using me to further her career or to get something,” Springsteen wrote. “Nothing could have been further from the truth.”
Whether being in the public eye was a major factor in the deterioration of their relationship is anyone’s guess, but regardless, the marriage was not destined to stand the test of time.
In August 1988, Phillips filed for divorce, citing “irreconcilable differences.” The divorce was finalized in March of the following year, with neither party commenting publicly on the matter at the time.
Since then, more details surfaced — most notable, from Bruce’s own Born to Run memoir, where he cites his own immaturity and simmering affection for Scialfa as fuel for the inevitable breakup. He even admitted that he failed her as a husband and partner.
Life After Divorcing Bruce Springsteen
After the divorce, Phillips continued to find success in front of the camera, appearing alongside Chevy Chase in Fletch Lives and John Ritter in Skin Deep in 1989 (it was her second time working with Blake Edwards; her first was in 1986’s A Fine Mess, where she had a short scene, although memorable, as she slapped one of Hollywood’s leading men — Ted Danson — in the film). She also appeared with Ritter again in the TV movie The Only Way Out in 1993.
Two years later, she nabbed her career-defining role as Frankie Reed, a main character on the popular NBC family drama Sisters. She stayed with the hit series for the first five seasons and two episodes of Season 6, and appeared in a handful of other projects before electing to leave her acting career behind in 1997.
These days, Phillips is living the private life she’s always coveted, even during her marriage to Springsteen. With a reported $20 million divorce settlement and a resumé full of her own success stories, she has chosen to stay away from the spotlight, save for an occasional Sisters cast reunion or similar special occasions, like charity events, including her 2019 appearance at the Teen Line’s Food for Thought Brunch at UCLA, which addressed youth suicide.
’80s Where Are They Now
March 2023
Who can forget all the great TV shows, movies and music of the ‘80s? See what your favs are up to now!
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