Where is Bruce Springsteen’s famous first wife now?

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 marriage of over 30 years to his partner and E Street Band member Patti Scialfa.

However, those who have followed Bruce’s long-running love story may have forgotten an earlier chapter – his marriage to his first wife. So what happened and where is blonde starlet Julianne Phillips (now 64 years old) now?

Small Town Girl Julianne Phillips

Everett Collection

Phillips’ real name was Julianne Smith and she was born in Evanston, Illinois, one of six children. Her family moved to the affluent Portland suburb of Lake Oswego, where she lived before transferring 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, since I was the youngest, and they all stayed in that area,” Phillips said in a 1989 interview. She had the spark to move to California.

His mistress. Warner Bros. Television / Courtesy: Everett Collection

After graduating, Phillips returned to Oregon and began working in local community theater. After being deemed a “perfect ten package,” she signed with the Elite Modeling Agency in 1982.

She found opportunities to work in both New York and Los Angeles and joined Summer Fantasy and then the 1984 television film His beloved (in which she starred alongside Robert Urich) and music videos such as 38 Special’s “If I’d Been the One” and later a certain Jersey Island-born superstar’s “Glory Days” (she appears at the end of the video).

Bruce Springsteen’s first love and marriage

Phillips and Springsteen met in October 1984 and married just six months later on Monday, May 13, 1985, shortly after midnight in Lake Oswego – an event that received enormous media coverage.

Shortly 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, admitted his mistakes and recalled a dinner: “As we chatted politely by candlelight, hand in hand, part of me tried to convince myself that she was just using me to advance her career or achieve something,” Springsteen wrote. “Nothing could have been further from the truth.”

Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

Whether their presence in the public eye was an important factor in the deterioration of their relationship is anyone’s guess, but in any case the marriage was not destined to last.

In August 1988, Phillips filed for divorce, citing “irreconcilable differences.” The divorce was finalized in March of the following year, without either party making any public comments on the matter at the time.

Since then, more details have come to light – the most notable of which are Bruce’s own Born to run Memoirs in which he cites his own immaturity and smoldering affection for Scialfa as the reason for the inevitable separation. He even admitted that he had failed as a husband and partner.

Life after the divorce from Bruce Springsteen

Everett Collection

After the divorce, Phillips continued to be successful in front of the camera and appeared alongside Chevy Chase in Fletch lives and John Ritter in Skin deep 1989 (it was her second collaboration with Blake Edwards; her first was in 1986 in A beautiful messwhere she had a brief but memorable scene when she slapped one of Hollywood’s leading men – Ted Danson. She also appeared again with Ritter in the TV movie The only way out in 1993.

Everett Collection

Two years later, she landed the career-defining role of Frankie Reed, a main character in the popular NBC family drama SistersShe remained on the hit series for the first five seasons and two episodes of the sixth season, and appeared in several other projects before deciding to leave her acting career behind in 1997.

Rachel Murray/Getty Images for Teen Line

Today, Phillips lives the private life she always wanted, even during her marriage to Springsteen. With a reported $20 million divorce settlement and a resume full of her own success stories, she has chosen to stay out of the spotlight, aside from the occasional Sisters Cast reunions or similar special occasions such as charity events, including their 2019 appearance at the Teen Line’s Food for Thought Brunch at UCLA, which addressed youth suicide.