Bob Dylan’s Wife & Girlfriends: His Dating History Explored

The movie “A Complete Unknown” focuses on iconic singer Bob Dylan’s music and his dating history.

Although the movie does not show him with a wife, it does prominently feature two girlfriends: A girlfriend the movie calls “Sylvie,” and his tumultuous relationship with folk singer and activist Joan Baez.

In one scene in the movie, Sylvie leaves a folk festival upset after a duet between Dylan and Baez, and she tells him she feels like a spinning plate on a stick.

But was this real? Did Dylan date Joan Baez? Yes. Was Sylvie a real person? Yes, she was modeled on Dylan’s actual girlfriend, but her name was Suze in real life. And, yes, Dylan did end up with a wife – two of them, and he divorced both of them. Dylan is not currently married.

Here’s what you need to know about Dylan’s wife and girlfriends:

Bob Dylan & Girlfriend Suze Rotolo

GettyBob Dylan holding his acoustic guitar and his girlfriend Suze Rotolo.

According to The Guardian, Suze Rotolo (the character was called Sylvie Russo in the movie), was featured on the cover of an iconic Dylan album “The Freewheelin’.” It shows them walking down the street together in Greenwich Village.

Rotolo died of lung cancer at age 67 in 2011, The Guardian reported. She was the “girlfriend who inspired some of his finest early songs, including Boots of Spanish Leather, One Too Many Mornings, Tomorrow Is a Long Time and Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” the site reported, adding that she also introduced him to other artists and New York culture.

They started dating in 1961 after meeting at a folk music concert in a New York church (as the movie shows) and broke up three years later. “Right from the start I couldn’t take my eyes off her,” Dylan wrote, according to The Guardian. “She was the most erotic thing I’d ever seen. She was fair skinned and golden haired, full-blood Italian … We started talking and my heart started to spin … She was just my type.”

At the time of her death, she was married to Enzo Bartoccioli, according to The New York Times.

According to the Times, she described Dylan in her book as “oddly old-time looking, charming in a scraggly way.”

“The alliance between Suze and me didn’t turn out exactly to be a holiday in the woods. Eventually fate flagged it down and it came to a full stop. It had to end. She took one turn in the road and I took another,” Dylan once wrote, according to The Times.

Bob Dylan & Joan Baez Had a Topsy Turvy Relationship

GettyJoan Baez and Bob Dylan.

According to Far Out Magazine, it’s true that Dylan and Baez “travelled around the festival circuit, singing duets and getting closer and closer.”

Their relationship ended in a “rift” by the mid-1960s and they addressed each other in songs, according to Far Out Magazine.

“I always liked singing and playing with her,” Dylan recalled, according to Far Out Magazine. “I thought our voices really blended well; we could sing just about any kind of thing and make it make sense. To me, it always sounded good, and I think it sounded good to her, too.”

The magazine attributed the rift between them in part to his fame exceeding hers all of a sudden. “I was just trying to deal with the madness that had become my career, and unfortunately, she got swept up along, and I felt very bad about it,” he said, according to Far Out Magazine. “I was sorry to ever see our relationship ever end.”

According to Rolling Stone, “A romantic relationship ensued until the two split following his legendary 1965 tour of the U.K., which proved too chaotic for Baez.” She spoke about their relationship in a 2023 documentary.

“We didn’t know that [Baez] played such a huge role in launching Bob Dylan out into the music world,” the filmmakers told Rolling Stone. “But we also didn’t know the complicated role that politics played in their relationship. Joan wanted Dylan to show up at marches and be more political, but it just wasn’t his interest. While it was devastating for her at the time, now she’s simply grateful. ‘He spent that time writing the beautiful songs we used,’ Baez told us. And she was sorry that she demanded so much of him. ‘It simply wasn’t who he was or who he wanted to be.’”

Bob Dylan’s 1st Wife Was Sara Lownds

Getty2nd September 1969: American electric folk hero Bob Dylan (born Robert Zimmerman 1941 – ) arriving at an airport with his wife Sara.

Dyan did get married, first to Sara Lownds, also known as Sara Dylan.

According to People, Dylan and Sara were married from 1965 to 1977, and they had four kids together named Jesse, Anna, Sam, and Jakob, and Dylan adopted Sara’s daughter Maria.

Dylan’s first wife worked as “a secretary for the film production division of Time Life,” People reported, adding that Dylan blamed their break-up on him starting to take art classes.

“I went home after that first day and my wife never did understand me ever since that day,” he said, according to People. “That’s when our marriage started breaking up. She never knew what I was talking about, what I was thinking about, and I couldn’t possibly explain it.”

Bob Dylan’s 2nd Wife Was Carolyn Dennis

GettyBob Dylan.

Carolyn Dennis, Dylan’s second wife, was his backup dancer, according to People. They had a daughter Desiree together but kept their marriage secret for nine years, People reported.

In 2001, ABC News reported that Dennis had confirmed the secret marriage, which lasted for six years. ABC News described her as a “Gospel-rock vocalist.”

“Bob and I made a choice to keep our marriage a private matter for a simple reason — to give our daughter a normal childhood,” she told ABC News in a statement.

“To portray Bob as ‘hiding his daughter’ is just malicious and ridiculous,” Dennis said to ABC. “That is something he would never do. Bob has been a wonderful, active father to Desiree.”

In 2023, Desiree Dennis Dylan posted a tribute to her mom on her Instagram page that included a throwback photo.

She has posted other photos of her mom on Instagram.

“There will never be enough words in any language — or any lifetime, for that matter — to adequately express how much my mom means to me. She still makes me cackle like this to this day and she’s been covering me and this family with love, wisdom, prayers and so much more for longer than I can remember,” she wrote.

“She’s the reason my love of musical theatre runs so deep and the reason I’m still trying to find this ‘Boo Boo the Fool’ so I know I wasn’t lying to her when I told her she didn’t look like him. (iykyk 😂) Today may be her birthday, but she’s truly the gift. Happy birthday, Mom. I love you ❤️”

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