Barbara Bach: From Bond Girl to Rehab and Redemption
Barbara Bach, the striking beauty who captivated audiences as the icy and alluring KGB agent Anya Amasova in The Spy Who Loved Me, has long been a subject of fascination. Not only for her turn as a Bond girl opposite the ever-suave Roger Moore but also for her marriage to Beatles legend Ringo Starr.
Now well past their retirement ages, the pair have defied the ravages of time—perhaps making one wonder if their secrets to longevity are a little more wholesome than their past indulgences.
Because, of course, the past was anything but clean living. Far from the glamorous Bond sets and rock ‘n’ roll excess, Bach and Starr found themselves trapped in a vortex of addiction.
Theirs was not merely a case of celebrity partying gone a little too far—it was a full-blown catastrophe. By the late 1980s, the couple had descended into a haze of alcohol and hard drugs, living in a world of excess so extreme that their very survival hung in the balance. Another mighty struggle after helping 007 take on the might of Jaws!
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‘We Were Convinced We Were Going to Die’
After The Beatles split, Starr found solace in the bottle, turning to alcohol and cocaine to drown out the crushing monotony of post-fame existence. By the mid-80s, his solo career faltering, he had taken to consuming an eye-watering 16 bottles of wine a day. Bach, too, was swept up in this maelstrom of self-destruction.
The consequences were, predictably, dire. A friend at the time recounted how the couple had been “drinking heavily every day for years,” adding that both were also habitual cocaine users with Starr reportedly snorting up to a gram a day. Typically, their home life descended into chaos, as their two children were effectively abandoned and packed off to boarding school.
It was a nightmarish existence, culminating in an episode so shocking it jolted Ringo Starr into reality. One day, he awoke to find their house ransacked, assuming they had been burgled. In truth, he had been the one to destroy it in a drunken rage.
Even worse, he recalled: “I’d trashed Barbara so badly they thought she was dead.” The cold realisation of just how far they had fallen forced them to confront their demons.
The Road to Redemption
Ringo said it had seemed like all they’d done since tying the knot was “sit in a room and use drugs. They were convinced they were gonna die unless they got help.” It was either get clean or die, so the pair checked into rehab in 1988.
Four weeks later, they emerged, miraculously unscathed but forever changed. Sobriety became their new mantra, and they turned to a healthier, more grounded lifestyle, adopting vegetarianism and growing their own produce—a stark contrast to the hedonistic chaos of their past.
Theirs is a rare success story in the annals of celebrity excess. More than three decades on, Bach and Starr remain happily married, a testament to their enduring love and resilience.
As Bach succinctly put it in 2015: “I love the man, and that’s it.” And in Starr’s own words: “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.”
Against all odds, the couple who once seemed destined for tragedy have emerged stronger than ever—a lesson, perhaps, that even in the most glamorous and dangerous circles, redemption is possible.
