Barbra Streisand’s life has been a captivating journey, marked by both triumphs and tribulations. Now, her son, Jason Gould, shares his experience of learning new details about his iconic mother through her autobiography, My Name Is Barbra.
Despite Streisand’s own tumultuous relationship with her mother, she shares an incredibly close and affectionate bond with her son, Jason Gould. During a recent interview, Gould disclosed that delving into Streisand’s memoir, My Name Is Barbra, has unearthed some surprising revelations about his mother.
Streisand eloquently recounts her illustrious career spanning over six decades, encompassing music, stage performances, and cinema. Within the pages of her memoir, she candidly reflects on the journey that propelled her to become one of the most revered artists of the 21st century.
Jason Gould Opens Up About His Mother’s Memoir
While speaking with PEOPLE, Jason Gould, the son of Barbra Streisand and Elliott Gould, revealed that when he read his mother’s memoir My Name is Barbra, which was released in November, last year, he found at least one unknown fact.
“It was interesting because I didn’t know that she was a little shoplifter as a kid,” he says. “I can’t remember what she said [in detail], but I didn’t know that about her.”
However, apart from that, the majority of the incidents covered in the book were known to him, and he went through every page of it.
“I thought it was very honest, and I thought it was well-written. It had painful [parts] that were a little hard to read. We all have trauma. That’s the thing. Including me,” he says. “And the question is, ‘How do we heal it?’ So, I’m definitely on that path.”
The memoir also narrates Streisand’s split from Gould’s father. His parents welcomed him on December 29, 1966, before they split in 1971.
“My mother lost her father when she was an infant, so that’s a huge trauma,” he said.
“She had a stepfather who was abusive. That’s a huge trauma. My father’s mother had tremendous trauma. How could that not affect him and, therefore, affect me? How could my mother’s trauma not, therefore, affect me? It has, even in ways that I’m sure they’re not even conscious of,” he added.
He also said that he was afraid to explore music as his mother herself was an icon in this field. He added that he did not want to be compared with his mother. Hence, he intentionally lessened his effort in music until the moment when he realized that he could not.
Barbra Streisand said that She Hasn’t Had “Much Fun’ in Her Life”
Reflecting on her six-decades-long career, Barbra Streisand lamented once that she lacked the fun in life, and she just wanted to ‘live life.’
While promoting her memoir, my name is Barbra, the legendary actress and singer in an interview with the BBC said,
“I want to live life. I want to get in my husband’s truck and just wander, hopefully, with the children somewhere near us.”
“Life is fun for me when they come over. They love playing with the dogs, and we have fun,” she continued. “I haven’t had much fun in my life to tell you the truth. And I want to have more fun.“
“But, you know, it was more exciting to dream about being famous than the reality. I’m a very private person. I don’t enjoy stardom,” she told BBC.
She played heroines in What’s Up, Doc and The Owl And The Pussycat, and the romantic lead in The Way We Were. In 1998, Streisand got married to actor James Brolin, and she became stepmom to his three children.
