Barbra Streisand shares the secret to her happy marriage with sage advice

Barbra Streisand shares the secret to her happy marriage with sage advice that's kept her relationship strong

Barbra Streisand
(Image credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images)

Barbra Streisand has shared the secret to her happy marriage with some sage advice that's kept her relationship strong for a quarter of a century.

The singer opened up on a recent podcast promoting her latest music release. According to the legendary star it all comes down to communication. 

"The secret is to listen carefully," she said. "I think to be a good actor, you have to listen. To be a good person, you have to listen. To be a good marriage partner, you have to listen." She added, "Hear the other person. Agree to disagree."


The sage advice was featured on the Variety podcast where she opened up on her marriage, career and writing. 

Barbra married actor James Brolin in 1998 and the couple have remained one of Hollywood's most solid pairings. James has starred in films including Catch Me If You Can, The Amityville Horror, and Traffic. He's also featured on shows like Monk and Roseanne.

The pair, who both have children from previous relationships, are total dog lovers. Famously Barbra loved one of her dogs Samantha so much that she had it cloned—twice!

Barbra Streisand

(Image credit: Steve Granitz / Contributor/Getty)

Barbra is James' third wife and he claims that for him it's all about the experience he's gained with time. "The best part of being married later in life is you get great wisdom—you don’t have your learner’s permit anymore."

The actor also spoke on an appearance on The Talk about how lockdown solidified their union. "We... were put out by COVID and a lot of people, their marriages haven’t gone well during these 15 months," he said. "We’ve literally fallen in love over this period of time, just being stuck together every day and making it work," he added. "Neither one of us have ever gone out the door and we are good at talking things out. And 23 years is better than ever. I must say."

The iconic musician has been busy promoting her latest album, Release 2, which is a carefully curated compilation of 10 previously unreleased studio tracks. These songs include collaborations with Willie Nelson and Barry Gibb alongside a load of interesting offerings over her career from 1962 onwards.

Aoife Hanna
Junior News Editor

Aoife is an Irish journalist and writer with a background in creative writing, comedy, and TV production.

Formerly woman&home's junior news editor and a contributing writer at Bustle, her words can be found in the Metro, Huffpost, Delicious, Imperica and EVOKE.

Her poetry features in the Queer Life, Queer Love anthology.

Outside of work you might bump into her at a garden center, charity shop, yoga studio, lifting heavy weights, or (most likely) supping/eating some sort of delicious drink/meal.