Pat Benatar And Neil Giraldo: Star-Crossed Lovers, Partners For More Than 30 Years...

The year was 1979, and 26-year-old star-in-the-making Pat Benatar was not looking for a boyfriend. That all changed when a young guitarist—“the most drop-dead gorgeous man I had ever seen in my life”--walked into her rehearsal space one day.

“I thought, Girl, you have just seen the father of your children,” Benatar recalled of that moment in her 2010 autobiography Between A Heart And A Rock Place.

Turns out she was right: The guitarist was Neil Giraldo, who would end up being not only her longtime guitarist, but also her husband. The couple are now parents to two daughters, and have collaborated professionally as well as personally for 30 years strong and counting. 

Benatar, who turns 60 on Thursday, is still in the thick of an active career—she and Giraldo embarked on a summer tour in 2012 and are currently playing dates around the nation through this spring--and explains that her long partnership with her husband is a result of respect and simply accepting that failure isn’t an option.

“It's kind of an incestuous relationship,” she told Parade of her marriage. “There isn't any part of our lives that isn't intertwined--so even when there's a conflict, you just have to resolve it.”

“It was a partnership from the very beginning,” Giraldo added. “We were just two missing pieces that found each other."

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The guy who stuck by Pat Benatar's side