Evergreen Love: James Brolin and Barbra Streisand’s Quiet Symphony of Strength and Song
In the sun-dappled kitchen of their Malibu sanctuary, where ocean waves provide the percussion and coffee steam writes invisible lyrics in the air, James Brolin pressed play on “Evergreen” at dawn, turning ordinary mornings into the most intimate duet Hollywood has ever known.
James Brolin’s daily ritual of playing Barbra Streisand’s “Evergreen” while making coffee has become the unspoken anthem of their 27-year marriage, a gentle vow renewed each sunrise that transforms routine into reverence and proves love’s most powerful notes are often the quietest. The tradition began in 1998, months after their July 1 wedding at Barbra’s Malibu estate, when James noticed her hands trembling during a particularly brutal vocal cord treatment. “Rough day?” he asked. She nodded, eyes glistening. “Rougher than I’ll admit.” Then came the smile—radiant, resilient—that has defined her since Funny Girl.
The song choice was deliberate: “Evergreen,” Barbra’s 1976 Oscar-winning ballad from A Star Is Born, became their private scripture, its lyrics about love that “grows and grows” mirroring the couple’s philosophy of nurturing what matters most. James never tried to fix Barbra’s stiff-person syndrome struggles or the industry battles that left her voice raw. Instead, he created a home where music was medicine—piano keys always warmed by sunlight, garden paths lined with wind chimes that echoed her melodies. “He doesn’t manage my pain,” Barbra told Vanity Fair in 2023. “He harmonizes with it.”
Their mornings follow a sacred choreography: James rises first, brews coffee strong enough to wake the Pacific, and cues “Evergreen” at exactly 7:14 a.m.—the minute they met at a 1996 blind date arranged by friends. Barbra pads in wearing one of James’s flannel shirts, barefoot on heated floors, and they stand in silence as her younger voice fills the room: “Love, soft as an easy chair…” When the bridge hits—“Time rushes by, love rushes too”—James squeezes her hand, a Morse code of solidarity. “Guess I better keep believing in love, huh?” she whispers, every single day.
The ritual has weathered storms: Barbra’s 2022 diagnosis that silenced her for months; James’s 2024 prostate cancer scare that left him weak but unwavering. During Barbra’s darkest days, when speaking hurt and singing seemed impossible, James played “Evergreen” on a loop—not for memory, but for momentum. “Each morning was another verse she got to sing,” he told AARP Magazine. Their Malibu compound became a fortress of sound: the piano where Barbra composed lullabies for their grandchildren; the garden where James built a small stage for her to test new material on hummingbirds and him alone.
As November 11, 2025, dawns with Barbra preparing for her 2026 world tour and James filming his final Sweet Tooth season, their ritual remains unchanged—proof that true partnership isn’t about grand gestures but about showing up, song after song. The world sees the diva and the cowboy, the EGOT winner and the Emmy nominee. They see two people who chose presence over perfection, who turned a kitchen into a concert hall and a marriage into a masterpiece. And when the final note of “Evergreen” fades each morning, the silence that follows isn’t empty—it’s full of tomorrow’s promise, played in the key of forever.
