Barbra Streisand has reflected on her six-decade career in the entertainment industry, but admitted that despite all her success, she “hasn’t had much fun” in her life.
Ahead of the release of her memoir “My Name Is Barbra” Tuesday, the EGOT winner, 81, says she’s finally ready to make up for the years she spent not enjoying life to its full extent.
“I want to live life,” Streisand told BBC. “I want to get in my husband’s truck and just wander, hopefully with the children somewhere near us.”
“Life is fun for me when they come over. They love playing with the dogs and we have fun,” she continued. “I haven’t had much fun in my life, to tell you the truth. And I want to have more fun.”
Streisand shares son Jason Gould, 56, with her actor ex-husband Elliot Gould, to whom she was married from 1963 to 1971.
In 1998, she tied the knot with actor James Brolin, and became stepmom to his three children: Josh, 55, Jess, 51, and Molly, 36.
She went on to become grandmother to Josh’s four kids: Trevor, 35, Eden, 29, Westlyn, 5, and Chapel, 2.
In her forthcoming 992-page-long memoir, “The Way We Were” singer admitted she’s a “very private person” who “doesn’t enjoy stardom.”
Admitting that fame wasn’t something she longed for, Streisand said her love of performing drowned out any noise of doubt.
“I was only five or six years old, and my little girlfriends and I used to sing together in the lobby,” she said.
And her journey to the top was met with criticism from none other than her family, as her mother, Diana Streisand, “discouraged” her from pursuing a career in the industry — as did her stepfather.
“I don’t remember ever him talking to me or asking me any questions…How am I? How is school? Anything,” she shared.
“I was never seen by him — or by my mother, either. She didn’t see my passion for wanting to be an actress. She discouraged me.”
Elsewhere, Streisand recalled breaking into the entertainment world after winning a talent show in an NYC bar.
She managed to book shows in and around the Big Apple, with her first big break being in “Funny Girl,” opposite Charlie Chaplin’s son, Sydney Chaplin.
But Streisand says her experience was marred by Sydney’s treatment of her.
“I don’t like to even talk about it,” Streisand told the outlet. “It’s just a person who had a crush on me –which was unusual — and when I said to him, ‘I don’t want to be involved with you’, he turned on me in such a way that was very cruel.”
“It threw me. Sometimes I thought, ‘What the hell is the next word?’ I felt so flustered,” she added.
When asked why she wanted to release the memoir, the legendary performer said it was “the only way to have some control over my life.”
“This is my legacy. I wrote my story. I don’t have to do any more interviews after this,” she said.
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