Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon and Yasmin have been married 36 years: timeline, children, photos & more

They welcomed three daughters - Amber, 33; Saffron, 31; and Talullah, 28 - and now are grandparents as well
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The first time Simon Le Bon saw his wife, supermodel Yasmin Le Bon, it was not in person.

The Brummie pop star saw her in a magazine and it was love at first sight. He found her through her model agent. That was in 1984. They got married the next year in an impulsive act.

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She wore Benetton because that was the only store that was open post-Christmas and her wedding ring was worth £30, she told Sydney Morning Herald. Their guest list was “anyone we’d bumped into the night before because we couldn’t organise anything”.

They have been together since - almost 37 years. The couple’s anniversary is on December 27.

They welcomed three daughters - Amber, 33; Saffron, 31; and Talullah, 28 - and now are grandparents as well, but the spark between them is still alive.

“I wake up in the morning and for ten minutes or so I just get to look at her sleeping peacefully. That’s kind of all you need to know about me,” he told the Daily Mirror. “I guess I’m very lucky that I picked somebody really bloody good in the first place! She’s great fun, fantastic, beautiful and we laugh all the time. It’s not always easy at all. But I really want to stay married for life.”

  Yasmin Le Bon and Simon Le Bon  (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)  Yasmin Le Bon and Simon Le Bon  (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)
Yasmin Le Bon and Simon Le Bon (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)
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“People are led to believe that if it’s not perfect then just ditch it and change it these days. That’s a f***ing mistake,” he added.

All relationships have their ups and downs and so did they.

Yasmin, 58, was just 17 when she was scouted in Oxford and at 19, she joined Models 1 in London. At 21, she got married and became a mother for the first time three years later.

However, when her daughters were teens, she battled mental health problems.

She told NZ Herald that she would hide in the bathroom and cry. “Nobody can tear your heart apart within a couple of words like [your children] can... I had been a punchbag for a long time and it was having an effect. That whole emotional drain pushed me over the edge... I was in a dark place,” she said.

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Yasmin, the daughter of Iranian photographer Iradj Parvaneh, and British mom, Patricia, has been a working mom most of her life but that took a toll on her.

She had a breakdown trying to juggle both. “They get to a certain age and you’re exhausted because you can’t keep up that level of discipline. By the time they got to their teenage years they could walk all over me,” she said.

However, everyone now peacefully co-exists in their house, which she described as a “mad place”.

And yet, her motto is to put family first. She and Simon are now hands-on grandparents as well.

“And it’s exhausting. Oh, my god … boys,” she told SMH.

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But, the couple is proud of creating a home nobody wants to leave. “It’s the opposite of what you’re meant to do. But I just love having the children around,” she added.

During the lockdown, nine adults lived in their Putney house.Yasmin and Simon, their three daughters, Amber, Saffron, (who lives in a cottage abutting Simon and Yasmin’s garden, with her partner Benjamin and children Taro and Skye), and Tallulah plus boyfriends and Yasmin’s niece.There were also multiple pets.

Simon and Yasmin Le Bon have been married for almost 37 years (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images) Simon and Yasmin Le Bon have been married for almost 37 years (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)
Simon and Yasmin Le Bon have been married for almost 37 years (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

Enduring love

The older they get, the harder it is for Simon and Yasmin to live without each other, and both of them have active careers that take them all over the world.

“Being apart is becoming more difficult the older we get,” Yasmin told Independent.ie. “We’re finding time apart more difficult. Twenty-four or 48 hours is fine, but when it starts getting longer, it’s hard. It’s getting harder, not easier, as time goes by. I suppose we’ve done it for so long and we’re kind of sick of it now. I’m getting into a different phase of life.”

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