Who Is Bette Midler Dating? Husband & Family

Who Is Bette Midler Dating in 2026?

Bette Midler is married to artist Martin von Haselberg - and has been for more than 40 years, one of the longest marriages in show business. The couple wed on December 16, 1984, in Las Vegas, in a ceremony famously officiated by an Elvis impersonator. It was a whirlwind: by many accounts they married just weeks after meeting, and four decades later they are still together - a Hollywood anomaly the Divine Miss M likes to joke about on stage.

At 80, Midler remains a force - a Kennedy Center honoree with four Golden Globes, three Grammys, three Emmys and two Tonys across a six-decade career - and she has always credited the stability of her marriage for letting her take the creative risks that defined it.

Bette Midler: Life and Career Background

Bette Midler ( bet MID-lər; born December 1, 1945) is an American actress, comedian, singer, and author. Throughout her six-decade career Midler has received numerous accolades, including four Golden Globe Awards, three Grammy Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, and a Kennedy Center Honor, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards and a British Academy Film Award.

Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Midler began her professional career in several off-off-Broadway plays, prior to her engagements in Fiddler on the Roof and Salvation on Broadway in the late 1960s. She came to prominence in 1970 when she began singing in the Continental Baths, a local gay bathhouse where she managed to build up a core following. Since 1970, Midler has released 14 studio albums as a solo artist, selling over 30 million records worldwide, and has received four Gold, three Platinum, and three Multiplatinum albums by RIAA. Many of her songs became chart hits, including her renditions of "The Rose", "Wind Beneath My Wings", "Do You Want to Dance?", "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy", and "From a Distance". She won Grammy Awards for Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "The Rose", and Record of the Year for "Wind Beneath My Wings".

Midler made her starring film debut with the musical drama The Rose (1979), which won her the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, as well as nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress, the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress, and the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress. She went on to star in numerous films, including Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), Ruthless People (1986), Outrageous Fortune (1987), Big Business (1988), Beaches (1988), Stella (1990), Hocus Pocus (1993) and its sequel (2022), The First Wives Club (1996), The Stepford Wives (2004), Parental Guidance (2012), and The Addams Family (2019) and its sequel (2021). Midler also had starring roles in For the Boys (1991) and Gypsy (1993), winning two additional Golden Globe Awards for these films and receiving a second Academy Award nomination for the former.

Midler held a residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas with the show Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On from 2008 to 2010. She starred in the Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly!, which began previews in March 2017 and premiered at the Shubert Theatre in April 2017. The show was her first leading role in a Broadway musical. Midler received the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance.

Bette Midler was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. She was the third of four children born to Ruth (née Schindel; 1911–1979) and Fred Midler (1908–1986). Midler's family was one of the few Jewish families that lived in a mostly Asian neighborhood. Her mother was a seamstress and housewife, and her father worked at a U.S. Navy base in Hawaii as a painter and also painted houses. Both parents were born in New Jersey. She was named after actress Bette Davis, although Davis pronounced her first name in two syllables (phonetically like "Betty") and Midler uses one syllable (phonetically like "bet"). She was raised in Aiea and attended Radford High School in Honolulu. She was voted "Most Talkative" in the 1961 school Hoss Election and "Most Dramatic" in her senior year (class of 1963).

Midler majored in drama at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, but she dropped out after three semesters. She performed as an extra in the 1966 film Hawaii, playing an uncredited seasick passenger named Miss David Buff.

Midler relocated to New York City in the summer of 1965, using money from her work in the film Hawaii. She studied theatre at HB Studio under Uta Hagen. She landed her first professional onstage role in Tom Eyen's off-off-Broadway plays in 1965, Miss Nefertiti Regrets and Cinderella Revisited, a children's play by day and an adult show by night. In October 1966, she joined the Broadway company of Fiddler on the Roof, playing the ensemble role of Rivka and understudying the oldest daughter Tzeitel. She assumed the role of Tzeitel in February 1967 and played the role until February 1970. After Fiddler, she joined the original cast of Salvation in 1969.

In the summer of 1970, Midler began singing at the Continental Baths, a gay bathhouse in the basement of the Ansonia Hotel. During this time, she became close to her piano accompanist, Barry Manilow—also a regular performer at the Continental Baths—who produced her first album in 1972, The Divine Miss M. It was during her time at the Continental Baths that she built up a core following. In the late 1990s, during the release of her album Bathhouse Betty (1998), Midler commented on her time performing there, "Despite the way things turned out [with the AIDS crisis], I'm still proud of those days. I feel like I was at the forefront of the gay liberation movement, and I hope I did my part to help it move forward. So, I kind of wear the label of 'Bathhouse Betty' with pride."

The Love Story: How Bette Met Martin

Bette met Martin von Haselberg, a German-born artist and performer, in the early 1980s. The courtship was famously fast - they were married within weeks of meeting, eloping to Las Vegas where an Elvis impersonator presided. Midler has told the story on talk shows for years: no long engagement, no wedding-industrial planning, just a quick decision that turned out to be the most durable one of her life. Von Haselberg, an artist who performed as part of the satirical duo The Kipper Kids, brought an avant-garde sensibility that matched Midler's own downtown-New-York roots.

Who Is Martin von Haselberg? About Bette's Spouse

Martin von Haselberg was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and raised in Germany and England. As half of The Kipper Kids with Brian Routh, he performed absurdist, provocative performance art in the 1970s - a world away from Midler's bathhouse-to-Broadway stardom, yet oddly compatible. He has largely stayed out of the spotlight during the marriage, supporting Midler's career while pursuing his own art. The couple's longevity is legendary in an industry where marriages are measured in months; Midler attributes it to marrying a genuinely kind man and to both of them fiercely protecting their private life.

Bette's Dating History

Before Martin, Midler's dating life in the 1970s was the stuff of New York legend - she was linked to several prominent figures during her rise from the Continental Baths to Broadway stardom, though she has always been discreet about names. What matters is what came after: since December 1984, there has been exactly one man, and Midler has never generated a single credible rumor of infidelity or split. In interviews she jokes that the secret is marrying someone who makes her laugh and then “never letting him get a word in.”

Bette Midler at 80: Career Snapshot

Bette Midler's six-decade career spans music, film, Broadway and comedy. She broke through with the 1972 album The Divine Miss M, earned her first Oscar nomination for The Rose (1979), and became a movie star with Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Ruthless People, Outrageous Fortune, Beaches (1988) and Hocus Pocus (1993). Her accolades include four Golden Globes, three Grammys, three Primetime Emmys, two Tonys - including Best Actress for Hello, Dolly! in 2017 - plus a Kennedy Center Honor. Offstage, she founded the New York Restoration Project in 1995, which has revitalized parks and community gardens across New York City.

Family Life and What Comes Next

Bette and Martin have one daughter, Sophie von Haselberg, born November 14, 1986, who followed her mother into acting (with roles on Manhattan and in films). Midler has said motherhood grounded her - she scaled back touring to raise Sophie, and the family has lived primarily in New York. Sophie married in 2020, making Midler a mother-in-law, a role she jokes about with the same bawdy humor that made her famous.

Bette's Love Life: Quick Answers

Still curious? The questions below cover the essentials - marriage status, partner, children and dating history“ if not past else ”the relationship, the history and the legacy, all answered with verified facts. For the deeper story - how they met, who came before, and what Bette has said about love - the sections above have it all.

Frequently Asked Questions

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