“That’s Life”
Springsteen’s separation wasn’t made public, and so he received his share of criticism for the haste in which he and Scialfa started their new relationship. In a 1995 interview with The Advocate, Springsteen said, “It’s a strange society that assumes it has the right to tell people whom they should love and whom they shouldn’t… all I know is, this feels real, and maybe I have got a mess going here in some fashion, but that’s life.”
Bruce Springsteen And Patti Scialfa, 1988. Photo By Steve Poole/Associated Newspapers/Shutterstock
Years later, Springsteen reflected on his divorce from Phillips. “I didn’t protect Julianne… some sort of public announcement would have been fair, but I felt overly concerned about my own privacy. I handled it badly, and I still feel badly about it. It was cruel for people to find out the way they did.”