Barbara Bach, who starred as Bond girl Triple X, wasn’t waiting to be rescued by a spy. Instead, she was looking for her own knight in shining armor—her rocker husband, Sir Richard Starkey, known to the world as Ringo Starr.
Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain
Now 75, Bach, an actress and model, was at the height of her career. She starred in 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me.
Playing both love interest and potential adversary to the womanizing 007, portrayed by Roger Moore.
Bach referred to Bond as “a chauvinist pig who uses girls to shield him against bullets.”
Moore agreed, saying in a 1973 interview with People, “Bond, like myself, is a male chauvinist pig.
All my life I’ve been trying to get women out of brassieres and pants.”
Before The Spy Who Loved Me, Bach appeared in Italian films.
Bach’s iconic role as a Bond girl established her as a timeless beauty and bolstered her acting career.
In Caveman, Starr’s character pursues Lana, played by Bach, only to choose another mate in the end. In reality, life took a different turn.
The two met at the Los Angeles airport, heading to Mexico to film Caveman.
Bach said in a 1981 Playboy interview, “A lot of garbage has been written about us, none of it interesting…
The truth is, we weren’t together until the ver
ikipedia Commons / United Artistsy end of Caveman. Working, we got along fine, but we each had other people, our respective friends.
Then, all of a sudden, within a week—the last week of shooting—it just happened. We changed from friendly love to being in love.”
In a 2021 interview with the Irish Examiner, he expressed his feelings for his wife.
“I love the woman. I loved her from when I first saw her at LAX in 1980. She was at the airport with a boyfriend and I was at the airport checking in, and we happened to be going to Mexico to do the same movie.
And that’s how it happened,” Starr recalled. “I’m blessed she’s in my life, that’s all I can ever say.”
Starr, a global superstar as drummer for The Beatles, performed at the legendary 1965 Shea Stadium show, where Bach was in the audience.
Though she was there with her sister Marjorie, a big Beatles fan, Bach herself was more interested in artists like Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, and the Rolling Stones.
Marjorie, who wore a Beatles wig to the concert, later married Joe Walsh, who joined The Eagles in 1975 and has performed alongside Starr in Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band.
Just months after John Lennon’s passing, Bach and Starr married on April 27, 1981, with Paul McCartney and George Harrison among the guests. The couple has been inseparable since.
Right before their wedding, the two survived a near-fatal car crash after their car swerved to avoid a truck and rolled over twice.
Starr later said, “We decided we wouldn’t spend any time apart. So far, the longest break was five days, and that was too long.
I want to live every minute with Barbara.” They also attended rehab together in 1988 and have remained sober since.
For their 40th anniversary in 2021, Starr shared a wedding photo with McCartney and Harrison in the image, captioned, “It was 40 years ago today The love of my life said yes yes yes.”
Beyond their close-knit blended family—Starr has three children with his late wife Maureen Cox.
Bach has two from her previous marriage to Augusto Gregorini—they also co-run The Lotus Foundation, supporting causes such as animal welfare, addiction recovery, homelessness, and cancer.
Starr, also an artist, donates 100 percent of his artwork sales to the foundation.
Instagram @givemeajohnlennonplease
It’s clear that, if possible, they’d be together “Eight Days a Week.” Bach shared, “I love the man, and that’s it.” Starr added, “There’s no escape… I think I love Barbara as much [today] as I did [when we met]—and I’m beyond blessed that she loves me and we’re still together.”
We love hearing about enduring love, and the story of former Bond girl Barbara Bach and her rockstar husband, Ringo Starr, is truly inspiring. We look forward to seeing all the wonderful things they’ll continue to do with their charity and in their lives!