Iman reflects on death of husband David Bowie: “He is not my ‘late husband’. He is my husband”
Supermodel Iman has reflected on the immense grief she feels about the death of her husband, the musician David Bowie. In a new reveal all interview, she discussed that she refuses to deem him her “late” husband and that she found it difficult to grieve him properly after he passed away.
The couple first met in 1990 on a blind date that a mutual friend organised. Things moved quickly, and they were married in a private ceremony in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1992. Now, appearing on the cover of January’s issue of British Vogue for the first time, Iman reflected on her endless love for Bowie, who passed away from cancer in January 2016.
“He is not my ‘late husband’. He is my husband,” she started. “I don’t mind at all being referred to as ‘David Bowie’s wife’,” she then added. “But I always remind people that I existed before I met him. And he was also very particular. He never introduced me by saying, ‘Meet my wife’. He’d always say, ‘Meet Iman, my wife.’ So we both already had our own identity. We were separate together.”
Iman then disclosed the extent of how challenging it was to find the space to grieve after her husband’s death. She also said that it was annoying when people claimed they shared her pain. “It was too much,” the supermodel recalled. “Too much.”
“We lived a very private life, and suddenly it felt like there was a target on mine and my daughter’s head. It got to the point where we had to leave our home [in New York City] because the public were always at the front door. Which I admire. I get it.”
She concluded: “But there was a point where it was like, ‘OK, go home now.’ You had people who would take your picture, sell it and then come to you and say, ‘I feel your pain.’ And I’m like, ‘No, bitch, you don’t feel my pain, get away from me.'”
