Supermodel Iman said she will never remarry after the death of her husband, singer David Bowie.
In a new interview with Porter Edit, Iman said she is still coming to terms with Bowie’s death in 2016 after a battle with liver cancer.
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“People take pictures of me in the street, and say [touching my arm]: ‘I am so sorry for your loss,’” Iman, 63, said. “I’m like, don’t touch me. You just took pictures of me, how can you be sorry?”
Iman later said she understands how fans can feel grief over the loss of the “Changes” singer, but what they feel is not the same as what she feels every day as they lost a music idol, she lost a husband and her daughter lost a father.
“I get the fans’ grief, but it’s not the same. They have lost someone they look up to; we have lost a husband and a father,” Iman told Porter Edit. “And sometimes, I don’t want people to know how sad I am… People say to me, ‘Oh, you’re so strong.’ I’m not strong – I am just trying to keep it together.”
Iman insisted she will not remarry and will always see Bowie as her husband.
“I will never remarry,” she said. “I mentioned my husband the other day with someone, and they said to me: ‘You mean your late husband?’ I said, no, he is always going to be my husband.”
Iman admitted she feels lonely and could not say she will “never” want a relationship, but added, “no, not now.”
Iman and Bowie married in 1992 and had one child together, 18-year-old Alexandra “Lexi” Jahra Jones. She also has a daughter from a previous marriage. Bowie has a son from his first marriage, film director Duncan Jones.
Duncan and Alexandra are close, and Iman said Alexandra wants to move to Los Angeles to be closer to him.
“But one of her biggest fears is leaving me,” Iman said. “I tell her: you are not responsible for me. It’s the other way around.”
In the interview, Iman admitted to being fiercly protective of Lexi. Every agency has made offers, asking for Lexi to model for them, but Iman has turned them down. She said Lexi is a painter and took a gap year.
“She says I am overprotective,” Iman said in the interview. “But I told her, this can all wait, it isn’t going anywhere. Have a life that is private while you can, because one day soon it is going to be public, so enjoy this.”
Bowie died in January 2016 at age 69 from liver cancer. He died two days after he released the album, Blackstar.
Recently, Iman has fought to bring more diversity to the fashion world. In an interview with Taraji P. Henson for Harper’s Bazaar in March, Iman said she would boycott a designer who refuses to use black models in campaigns.
“If a designer boycotts me, I should boycott him,” she said. “I’m not going to buy a bag from someone who doesn’t use black models. We should celebrate and highlight the people who actually step it up.”
Photo credit: Kevin Mazur/WireImage/Getty Images
