Dusty Springfield - Personal Life

Personal Life

From 1962, Springfield's parents lived in Hove, where Catherine died in 1976 of lung cancer in a nursing home. In 1979 Gerard had a fatal heart attack in nearby Rottingdean. Some of Springfield's biographers and journalists have speculated that she had two personalities: shy, quiet, Mary O'Brien – and the public face she had created as Dusty Springfield. An editorial review at Publishers Weekly of Valentine and Wickham's 2001 biography, Dancing with Demons, finds "he confidence exuded on vinyl was a facade masking severe insecurities, addictions to drink and drugs, bouts of self-harm and fear of losing her career if exposed as a lesbian". Simon Bell, one of Springfield's session singers, disputed the twin personality description, "t's very easy to decide there are two people, Mary and Dusty, but they were the one person. Dusty was most definitely Dusty right to the end". In her early career, much of her odd behaviour was seen as more or less in fun – described as a "wicked" sense of humour – including her food fights and hurling crockery down stairs. Springfield had a great love for animals – particularly cats – and became an advocate for animal-protection groups. She enjoyed reading maps and would intentionally get lost to navigate her way out. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Springfield's alcoholism and drug dependency affected her musical career. She was hospitalised several times for self-harm – by cutting herself – and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Springfield was never reported to be in a heterosexual relationship and this meant that the issue of her sexual orientation was raised frequently during her life. From mid-1966 to early 1970s Springfield lived in a domestic partnership with fellow singer, Norma Tanega. In September 1970, Springfield told Ray Connolly of the Evening Standard:

many other people say I'm bent, and I've heard it so many times that I've almost learned to accept it ... I know I'm perfectly as capable of being swayed by a girl as by a boy. More and more people feel that way and I don't see why I shouldn't.

By the standards of 1970, that was a very bold statement. Three years later, she explained to Chris Van Ness of Los Angeles Free Press:

I mean, people say that I'm gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay. I'm not anything. I'm just ... People are people... I basically want to be straight ... I go from men to women; I don't give a shit. The catchphrase is: I can't love a man. Now, that's my hang-up. To love, to go to bed, fantastic; but to love a man is my prime ambition ... They frighten me.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Springfield became involved in several romantic relationships with women in Canada and the US that were not kept secret from the gay and lesbian community. From late 1972 to 1978 Springfield had an "off and on" domestic relationship with Faye Harris, a US photojournalist. In 1981 she had a six-month love affair with singer-musician Carole Pope of the rock band Rough Trade. During periods of psychological and professional instability, Springfield's involvement in some intimate relationships, influenced by addiction, resulted in episodes of personal injury. In 1982 Springfield met an American actress, Teda Bracci, at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting – in April 1983 the pair moved in together and seven months later they exchanged vows at a wedding ceremony which was not legally recognised under California law. The pair had a "tempestuous" relationship which led to an altercation with both Springfield and Bracci hospitalised – Springfield had been smashed in the mouth by Bracci wielding a saucepan and had teeth knocked out requiring plastic surgery. The pair had separated within two years.