Whatever Happened To David Bowie's Two Children?
When it comes to deciding the best of British musicians, legions of fans would vote for the icon that is David Bowie. As Britannica reports, Bowie was born in London in January of 1947, and over his long career in the business he would release a string of successful and wildly eclectic albums and hit singles. According to the BBC, Bowie sold a total of around 140 million copies of his remarkable releases.
It's important to remember, though, that beneath the legend, the enigma, the fame, the fortune, and the Ziggy Stardust outfits, Bowie was a person too. He was a father to two children, and this was perhaps his most important accomplishment and role.
In 1971, per the BBC, "Hunky Dory" released, featuring the song "Kooks." According to the outlet, the song was written for his son Zowie, and it celebrates the efforts of, and the virtues of, parents and caregivers who may give their children unconventional lives, but who are equally capable as any other.
The lyrics are stark and touching: "I bought you a pair of shoes, a trumpet you can blow and a book of rules on what to say to people when they pick on you, cause if you stay with us you're gonna be pretty kooky too." Did Bowie's two children prove to be as brilliantly "kooky" as their famous father? Here's an introduction to them.
David Bowie's son Duncan Zowie Haywood Bowie, now Duncan Jones
As the Daily Mail reports, Bowie was 20 years old and had already adopted his famous moniker when he met Angie Bowie. Angie had been born in Cyprus, but was a student of art living in London at the time. Far Out Magazine states that the pair got married in 1970, but that there was no love between them. Angela Barnett, as she was known before the marriage, reportedly said later, "We got married so that I could [get a permit to] work. I didn't think it would last and David said, before we got married, 'I'm not really in love with you.'"
Fraught as the relationship may have been (they reportedly divorced after 10 years together), it produced another great talent. As David Bowie's official website reports, their son Duncan Zowie Haywood Bowie was born in May 1971.
His mother stated, per the Daily Mail, that Zowie's parents were ecstatic at his birth, but that "when the baby was around, our lifestyle just didn't work ... David and I were away doing drugs, at first together and then later apart. Marion effectively became Zowie's mother."
David Bowie now has two grandchildren
When Nanny Marion Skene died in March of 2017, Zowie (now known as Duncan Jones) wrote on Twitter, "she raised me. Without her, who knows what kind of a mess I'd be."
Jones was an aspiring filmmaker from his early adulthood. In 2011, he told The A.V. Club, "as soon as I finished film school, I was thinking about, how do I get to feature films?" He certainly achieved that dream, and went beyond it. Now, per the outlet, he has movies such as "Moon" and Jake Gyllenhall's "Source Code" under his belt, a distinguished career-in-progress that owes nothing to his parents' fame.
The Guardian reports that Jones married wife Rodene Ronquillo in 2012. They have two children themselves: their son was born in 2016, just months after David Bowie's death. On April 18, 2018, Jones Tweeted that their daughter, "the sequel to the hugely popular Stenton Jones," had been born.
David Bowie's daughter, Alexandria Zahra Jones
David Bowie's second child, unsurprisingly, is also a creative and artistic soul. Alexandria Zahra Jones was born in the year 2000, Elle reports, to Bowie and his second wife, the model Iman Abdulmajid.
Abdulmajid has acknowledged the great interest that her industry has in her daughter. In 2018, she told Porter, "every agency, every designer, called me to say: 'If she wants to, we'd love for her to model for us.'" For Alexandria, as with her elder brother Jones, the most important thing is to establish themselves outside of their father's shadow. As Abdulmajid put it, she didn't want her daughter modeling simply "because she is David Bowie's daughter."
This has not proven to be an issue for Bowie's youngest child. Her mother told Porter that she is excellent at painting, and she has even inspired her, Abdulmajid, to try painting herself. "David was a painter; my daughter is a painter ... I've taken it up," Abdulmajid told Harper's Bazaar in 2021.
In May 2020, The Sun reported that Alexandria had moved to Los Angeles, making a name for herself as an artist. "She isn't interested in the Hollywood scene ... she's enjoying being a regular teenager for now and making it on her own," a source reportedly told the outlet.
In short, both of David Bowie's children seem to be innovative souls, keen to break out on their own merits and indulge their passions.