Gordon Lightfoot - Personal Life

Personal Life

Lightfoot has been married twice. His first marriage in April 1963 was to a Swedish woman, Brita Ingegerd Olaisson, with whom he had two children, Fred and Ingrid. They divorced in 1973, the marriage ending in part due to his infidelity (with his then girlfriend, Cathy Smith). He has acknowledged that his musical touring, and the difficulty of fidelity in a long-distance relationship, contributed to the failure of at least two relationships:

When you're away from the woman, continually confronted by other women, you suddenly find yourself in a weak moment. Then you've gone and stepped over the traces and you gotta go home and confront your old lady. It's a two-way street. You're going to have to offer her the same deal. You can't ask the woman to be faithful if you're not going to be faithful to her. That's where it's broken down for me twice.

The song "If You Could Read My Mind" was written in reflection upon his disintegrating marriage. At the request of his daughter, Ingrid, he performs the lyrics with a slight change now: the line "I'm just trying to understand the feelings that you lack" is altered to "I'm just trying to understand the feelings that we lack." He has said in an interview that the difficulty with writing songs inspired by personal stories is that there is not always the emotional distance and clarity to make lyrical improvements such as the one his daughter suggested.

After being alone for 16 years between marriages, he married Elizabeth Moon in 1989. They have two children: Miles and Meredith.

He has played with some of his band members for more than 40 years.