James Taylor wife: Carly Simon’s heartbreak as star put down ‘iron curtain’

With six Grammy Awards and more than 100 million records sold, James Taylor, 73, is one of America’s most acclaimed musicians. The singer-songwriter, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, was showcased in a BBC Two film last night. ‘James Taylor: In Concert’ captures the ‘Fire And Rain’ singer during his golden era at a live show filmed for the BBC.

Broadcast in November in 1971, the year after James’ breakthrough, the film shows him perform some of his best loved hits, including ‘You Can Close Your Eyes’ and ‘Love Has Brought Me Around’.

Aged just 23, the star is joined onstage by long-time collaborator Carole King, who penned his first number one single, ‘You’ve Got A Friend’.

The film also features appearances from Danny Kortchmar, Leland Sklar, Russ Kunkel and Jo Mama.

The same month the film first aired, Carly Simon had tickets to see James play at New York’s Carnegie Hall.

The pair had rubbed shoulders briefly in the Sixties before meeting again in April 1971 as Carly played at The Troubadour in Los Angeles.

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However, it was the New York gig that really sparked their romance, and the couple married in 1972.

Despite being hailed as something of a golden couple by the press, James and Carly divorced in 1983, and she later claimed he put down an “iron curtain” in their relationship.

In a 2015 interview with news and culture site Salon, Carly reflected on the couple’s lack of contact since their separation.

She said: “I would say that the relationship is very resolved from James’s point of view.

“Which makes it clearly impossible for me to have a relationship with him because he’s put down an iron curtain.

James and Carly have two children together, Sally and Ben, who are both singer-songwriters.

Carly opened up to Salon about her experiences of motherhood.

She said: “It’s been very hard to raise children without having their father to talk to.

“It’s not as if he’s dead somewhere — he’s living in the Berkshires [Massachusetts].

“So, it’s been much more preoccupying to me than if he had been able to be reached.

“Then it would have been normalised. But being an abnormal situation, one tends to rebel against it.”