Gloria Estefan, James Taylor, and Barbra Streisand were honored last Fall by President Obama with the Presidential Medal of Freedom award (the highest honor a nonmilitary civilian can receive) and it was so very nice to see these deserving artists honored. Each has overcome so much in their lives.
Barbra Streisand broke into the entertainment business at a time when successful women were few and far between. She negotiated her own contracts in the mid-60s, fighting every Broadway and entertainment stereotype to make it to the top, but not without paying a personal price. Barbra has only one child Jason and has been married twice. Her first husband was actor Eliot Gould from 1963 to 1971, while her James Brolin whom she married in 1998.
James Taylor battled drugs and alcohol for many years and in Carly Simon’s recently published memoir it was James’s interactions with other women that caused their divorce.
A truck plowed into the back of Gloria Estefan’s concert bus while out on tour in 1990, and she needed many months of physical rehab to overcome her injuries and return to a normal life.
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