American singer and songwriter Bob Dylan, who is currently in his early 80s, has had a larger-than-life career in the music world. He is often recognized as one of the greatest songwriters in music history.
Apart from his music career, Bob Dylan’s love life has always made headlines in the mainstream media. Since he was a high school student, he has fallen in love with multiple women over different periods of time.
His fans and well-wishers even believe that many of his songs are dedicated to his love interests.
Well, whatever the past situation was, Bob apparently is single and happily living his retired life right now. But, for now, let’s take a look at his love life for a while.
Bob Dylan had three girlfriends before he married someone else!
Bob Dylan had a few romantic engagements during his youth. His love life has been as interesting as his music throughout his six decades of career.
Echo Helstrom was the first of Bob Dylan’s girlfriends. As a high school couple, they had similar musical interests. Her family exposed him to famous singers, folk music magazines, and sheet music.
However, Dylan’s first significant relationship in the public eye was with Suze Rotolo. They first met in July 1961 and were inseparable. She is most known to Dylan fans as the woman who walked arm in arm with him on the cover of his 1963 album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.
Bob Dylan & girlfriend Suze Rotolo,1963. pic.twitter.com/FyFiTLvjLc
— History Of Sound (@historyofsound) January 10, 2016
Regardless, the relationship was not without problems. Rotolo’s mother disapproved of her relationship with Dylan, so she left for Italy to study art in 1962. They separated for a while, and this separation is believed to have inspired some of Dylan’s early love songs, including Don’t Think Twice and It’s All Right.
A year later, in 1963, Rotolo returned to Dylan, but their relationship couldn’t withstand the pressures of Dylan’s growing fame and involvement with a fellow musician, Joan Baez. So, they broke up in 1964.
As Dylan’s relationship with Rotolo weakened, his involvement with folk singer Joan Baez grew denser. Their romantic relationship began in 1963 and lasted until 1965. During this time, they were called the royal pair of folk music.
Bob Dylan married two of his love interests, Sara Lownds and Carolyn Dennis
Bob Dylan married Sara Lownds on November 22, 1965, right after his break up with Joan Baez. Lownds worked as a model and secretary for Drew Associates. She was a loving and devoted wife to the musician.
They had four biological children together: Jesse Byron Dylan, Anna Lea, Samuel Isaac Abram, and Jakob Luke. Moreover, Dylan also adopted Sara’s daughter, Maria, from a previous marriage. But, despite that, their marriage didn’t last, and they parted ways in 1977.
After his divorce from Sara, fans believed Dylan took a long break from romantic engagements. However, the reality was something different.
Dylan was in a secret relationship with his backing singer, Carolyn Dennis. The couple even gave birth to a daughter, Desiree Gabrielle Dennis-Dylan, on January 31, 1986.
People report that the couple married on June 4, 1986, five months after their daughter’s birth. Their marriage lasted for six years until 1992, but the public was completely unaware of Desiree and Carolyn’s existence in Dylan’s life.
It was a massive secret until Howard Sounes’ biography Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan was published in 2001. The biography had claimed that Dylan was an absent father to his daughter, which Carolyn later denied, saying, “To portray Bob as ‘hiding his daughter’ is just malicious and ridiculous.”
She further stated, “That is something he would never do. Bob has been a wonderful, active father to Desiree.” This shows that Carolyn had respect for her ex-husband, Bob Dylan, even after separation.
Additional Information
- Bob Dylan was born on May 24, 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota, United States, and is currently 83 years old.
- He has a total of six children, including five biological and one adopted child.
- Dylan was awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature for creating new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.
