Peace Past With Her

Her voice is instantly recognizable, but when Barbra Streisand spends the day with her husband, James Brolin, she prefers blending in with the crowd. “James loves to go on trips in his pickup truck, and she goes with him,” Margery Tabankin, Barbra’s longtime friend and former director of the Barbra Streisand Foundation, tells Closer. “They’ll wear their baseball caps and no one knows who it is. It’s so unexpected that James Brolin and Barbra Streisand will walk into, like, a Denny’s — but they do!”

It may have taken a while to get there, but the superstar has finally found peace and contentment. “I’m happier than I ever was in my life,” reveals Barbra, whose recent 75th birthday gave her the opportunity to reflect on her difficult journey and what she’s learned from it. The pain began with her father’s early and tragic death, a contentious relationship with her mother and lifelong battles with anxiety and crippling insecurities. Now, Barbra is finally opening up about her past in a soul-baring memoir she’s currently writing. “She’s very introspective,” Tabankin says. “She’s had enough therapy and done enough work that she understands herself now.”

AFTER A LIFETIME OF HEARTBREAK & INSECURITY, THE SINGER IS FINALLY CONTENT

AND MORE CONFIDENT THAN EVER

TOUGH TIMES

Barbra’s childhood in Brooklyn, N.Y., was bleak. “From the day I was born, I was trying to get out,” she says of her

“After 20 minutes, I was a goner,” James says of his first date with Barbra. “After two hours, I knew we’d be married someday.”

“I became famous so young that I missed the social experiences most women have,” says Barbra, here in 1968’s Funny Girl.