At 40, Angela Bowie Told the Story NO ONE Dared About David Bowie

 

 

In 1990, Angela Bowie shocked the world.

On the Joan Rivers Show, she revealed the truth that had been hidden for years.

She caught David Bowie in bed with men several times, including a particularly scandalous moment with Mick Jagger.

The tabloids exploded.

David Bowie, the global icon, was already a living legend, but Angela’s confession would strip away the perfect image that had been created.

Ziggy Stardust, the Thin White Duke, the Starman—these were the personas that defined David Bowie.

But behind every legend is a person, and Angela Bowie had a story to tell.

She wasn’t just the woman behind the man.

Angela was the co-architect of Ziggy, the firestarter of Bowie’s fame, and the manager without the title.

But in the blink of an eye, she was erased from history.

Rewritten as a footnote, a nuisance, or even worse, the mad ex-wife.

But Angela never forgot.

And in 1990, she opened the vault and told the story no one else dared to.

Angela and David Bowie’s journey began long before the fame.

Born Mary Angela Barnett in 1949, Angela’s childhood was marked by constant moves.

Cyprus, Switzerland, England—she learned to blend in but preferred to stand out.

At 16, Angela was expelled from Connecticut College for Girls due to a romantic relationship with another female student.

 

 

 

 

It was scandalous.

But Angela didn’t retreat.

She moved to London and immersed herself in the art scene, a scene brimming with revolution, music, and freedom.

She wasn’t famous yet, but she was making waves.

In 1969, she met David Bowie backstage at the Roundhouse in London.

They both were romantically involved with the same man, a Mercury Records scout, but what could have been an awkward encounter was electric instead.

Angela immediately saw something in David.

He wasn’t just another pop hopeful—he was different, dangerous, and marketable.

David didn’t feel the same at first.

But love wasn’t the point.

Their connection was fusion.

Angela pushed David to sign a record deal with Mercury, threatening to leave their shared lover unless it happened.

It worked.

From there, Angela helped shape David’s rise to stardom.

She styled him, managed his press, and even pushed him to make bold moves, including firing his old manager and hiring Tony Defreeze, a ruthless strategist.

They made Ziggy Stardust a reality.

Angela, always pushing the boundaries, was the one who encouraged David to wear a dress for the Man Who Sold the World album cover.

It shocked the public and thrilled the underground scene.

Ziggy Stardust wasn’t just a persona—it was a creation, and Angela was its co-creator.

She sewed the costumes, the first Ziggy outfit sewn by her hands.

She was the driving force behind the androgynous, boundary-pushing image that made David Bowie a global icon.

Their relationship wasn’t conventional.

It was open—both Angela and David were bisexual.

Their marriage wasn’t about traditional love—it was about building something bigger than themselves.

But as fame grew, so did the cracks in their relationship.

By 1974, the marriage was crumbling.

 

 

Angela was banned from David’s U.S. tour after a massive fight.

Drugs and trust issues became prevalent.

David, consumed by addiction, became a shadow of the man Angela had once known.

Angela couldn’t stay.

She left Berlin, where David had moved to escape his demons, but there, she found another woman, Karine Koko Schwab, in David’s life.

In 1980, they officially divorced.

Angela received £500,000 and agreed to a 10-year gag order.

She was erased from David’s world.

But Angela wasn’t done.

In 1993, she published her memoir Backstage Passes: Life on the Wild Side with David Bowie, a raw, unfiltered look at their chaotic life together.

She didn’t hold back—she wrote about the threesomes, the affairs, the backstage chaos, and the emotional distance between them.

The book was a bombshell, splitting readers into two camps: those who saw it as revenge and those who saw it as the truth.

Angela’s life after Bowie wasn’t easy.

She struggled with depression and felt exiled from the industry.

But she rebuilt her life.

She had another daughter with punk musician Drew Blood in 1980, and in the 1990s, she made occasional public appearances, speaking about her life with Bowie.

In 2016, she joined Celebrity Big Brother in the UK.

Her participation ignited a public debate when she chose to stay on the show after Bowie’s death.

She explained, “He was long gone from my life. I mourned him years ago.”

But the most painful part of her story is the unresolved rift with her son, Duncan.

She lost custody during the divorce, and by 2010, Duncan had cut off contact with her.

Now in her 70s, Angela lives a quiet life.

 

 

She’s not a household name, but she remains an important figure in the story of David Bowie’s rise to fame.

She was the one who helped create Ziggy Stardust, the one who dared to dream bigger than anyone else in that world.

And despite being erased from the myth they built together, Angela Bowie’s voice is still heard.

Her memoir, her interviews, her story—it’s all a reminder of the wild, beautiful chaos that birthed a legend.

David Bowie’s story is incomplete without her.

The truth has always been there, hidden in plain sight.