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Joni Mitchell, 80, will join a roster of performers at the 2024 Grammy Awards on February 4. Although the Canadian-American singer has made a tremendous impact in the music industry since she broke out into the scene in the 1960s, it will be her first time performing at the big event and it’s left her fans as excited as could be. After having an aneurysm that initially left her unable to speak in March 2015, she stepped away from the spotlight for a while, but made an incredible return to the stage at the Newport Folk Festival in July 2022.
When Joni isn’t making headlines for her music, she’s doing so for her personal life. The talented artist has been married twice in her life and welcomed a child that was put up for adoption. She’s also reportedly enjoyed may romantic relationships with other people in the public eye, including Leonard Cohen, David Crosby, Brad Macmath, JD Souther, Wayne Perkins, James Taylor and Jackson Browne. It’s unclear what her relationship status is in the present day.
Get to know Joni’s two ex-husbands and her time with them below.
Chuck Mitchell
Chuck Mitchell was Joni’s first husband. Joni met Chuck after she privately welcomed a daughter, Kelly Dale Anderson, with her ex Brad in 1965. She eventually put Kelly, who now goes by Kilauren Gibb, up for adoption since she was unable to provide for her at the time. During a gig at Penny Farthing, a folk club in Toronto, Canada, in March/April of the same year, she met Chuck, a singer-songwriter who was born in New York City and lived in Michigan.
Chuck was immediately impressed by Joni’s performance at the club and offered her steady work at coffeehouses in the U.S. Joni, who was born with the name Roberta Joan Anderson, then left Canada and traveled to the U.S. with Chuck so they could perform together. Their connection led to romance and marriage. The duo said “I do” in June 1965 and Joni took his last name. She once revealed she made her own dress as well as her bridesmaids’ dressed for the occasion.
After making a life together in Detroit, MI, Joni and Chuck eventually got divorced in early 1967 and she moved to New York City to continue to pursue her music career. He also continued a music career that led to many performances in various places and had a family.
Larry Klein
Joni and Larry in 1990. (Shutterstock)
Larry Klein, a bassist and engineer, was Joni’s second husband. The two of them met while working on music together in the early 1980s. They started a romance and were married in 1982. Throughout their marriage, they continued to work on music together and Larry even co-produced Joni’s 1994 album, Turbulent Indigo, which was her 15th studio album.
After 12 years of marriage, Joni and Larry parted ways and divorced. Larry has continued to work in music since the divorce, just like Joni, and now collaborates with his wife Luciana Souza. He sometimes gives interviews to various publications and in 2023, he spoke to Forbes about his time with Joni. After calling her “an amazing talent,” he opened up about their friendship turned romance and the music he made during his time with her.
“It was the beginning of a friendship between she and I that eventually developed into a romantic relationship. And then of course we ended up together and then eventually got married and spent 10 years together,” he wrote in the outlet. “And right around that time also I started getting offers to produce records. And so I started taking everything, I started producing friends records for free and working with Joni on finishing Wild Things Run Fast. It wasn’t an accredited production situation, but it was synergistic. We worked, bounced ideas back and forth, in the finishing process on that record. And then I started getting some offers to produce other records. And so that was the beginning of another part of me pursuing this craft of producing records, which I’m still trying to get right to this day.”
