Justin Trudeau may have more than Canadian politics in common with his father, fellow former prime minister Pierre Trudeau. In recent months, Justin has reportedly been romancing pop star Katy Perry; the Daily Mail has published photos of the two canoodling off the coast of Santa Barbara, California. Both public figures are recently single as well: Perry ended her engagement to actor Orlando Bloom, with whom she shares one daughter, Daisy, earlier this year, while Justin separated from his wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, with whom he shares three children—Xavier, Hadrien, and Ella-Grace—in 2023.
Perry seemingly addressed her romance with Justin during the London stop on her Lifetimes Tour on October 13, one day after the Daily Mail published the photos of the two of them. Perry replied to a surprise marriage proposal from a fan during the concert by saying, “I wish you’d asked me 48 hours ago.” At another point during the concert, Perry referenced her previous penchant for falling for Brits like Bloom and her ex-husband, Russell Brand. “London, England, you’re like this on a Monday night after a whole day at work and a whole day at school? No wonder I fall for Englishmen all the time.” She then cheekily added, “But not anymore.”
Justin may be following in his father’s footsteps by dating a world-famous musician. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, early in his first term, his father, Pierre, romanced none other than Barbra Streisand. Pierre, who served as prime minister of Canada from 1968 to 1979 and again from 1980 to 1984, was 50 years old when he began dating Streisand, who was 27 at the time. The EGOT winner detailed their May-December romance in her biography, My Name Is Barbra.
Streisand met Pierre in 1968 at the premiere of Funny Girl. At that time, Streisand’s personal life was complicated, to say the least: She was in the midst of a separation from actor Elliott Gould (whom she would divorce in 1971). Streisand wrote that she was “dazzled” by “the mix of Albert Einstein and Napoleon” that was Pierre. Pierre’s personal life was no less complicated at the time; he was in the process of wooing Margaret Sinclair, 29 years his junior. Pierre would go on to wed Sinclair in 1971 and have three children with her, including Justin, after his romance with the Funny Girl star came to an end.
Although they weren’t meant to be, Streisand had nothing but positive things to say about Pierre, who died in 2000 at the age of 80. “He was so elegant, yet totally unpretentious and perpetually curious…an adventurer who had backpacked through the Middle East and Asia as a young man,” Streisand wrote in her memoir. “And he had real charisma, generating so much excitement before and after his election that the Canadian press gave it a name…Trudeaumania.”
Original story appeared in VF España.
