{"id":359077,"date":"2025-08-20T09:26:23","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T09:26:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/359077\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T09:26:23","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T09:26:23","slug":"talking-heads-frontman-david-byrne-73-engaged-to-much-younger-girlfriend-after-nearly-a-decade-of-dating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/359077\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking Heads frontman David Byrne, 73, engaged to much-younger girlfriend after nearly a decade of dating"},"content":{"rendered":"

Talking Heads frontman David Byrne revealed he is engaged to his much younger girlfriend\u00a0Mala Gaonkar.<\/p>\n

The\u00a073-year-old musician and Gaonkar, 55, have been dating for nearly a decade, after first meeting in 2016 while working\u00a0on a production for The Makers series at Stanford Arts Institute.<\/p>\n

Byrne confirmed the happy engagement news in\u00a0an interview with\u00a0The Times<\/a>, published on Saturday.<\/p>\n

While discussing his upcoming album, Who Is The Sky?, and the origin of its ninth track, ‘Moisturizing Thing,’ he referred to\u00a0Gaonkar \u2014 whose ex-husband, 57, is currently dating Reese Witherspoon<\/a>, 49 \u2014 as his ‘fianc\u00e9e.’<\/p>\n

‘My fianc\u00e9e will sometimes come at me with greasy hands, ready to smear my face. And at one point I thought, “What if I wake up and really looked younger?”‘ he told the publication.<\/p>\n

‘But there’s a message, too. About how people judge us by the way we look. You learn a lesson you didn\u2019t expect at the start.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Talking <\/p>\n

Talking Heads frontman David Byrne, 73, revealed he is engaged to his much younger girlfriend Mala Gaonkar, 55, after nearly a decade of dating; They are seen at the Oscars in 2023<\/p>\n

\"While <\/p>\n

While discussing his upcoming album ‘Who Is The Sky?’ with The Times, he referred to Gaonkar as his ‘fianc\u00e9e’;\u00a0Byrne is pictured performing in 2002<\/p>\n

Byrne and Gaonkar live together in New York.<\/p>\n

The glamorous pair have attended several events together over the years, including a special screening for My Mother’s Wedding in August 2025, the Dune: Part Two premiere in 2024, and the 2023 Oscars.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The singer was previously married to Adelle Lutz from 1987 to 2004.<\/p>\n

The former couple share daughter Malu.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Gaonkar was previously married to financier Oliver Haarmann, who is now dating Witherspoon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gaonkar and Haarmann divorced after welcoming two sons together.<\/p>\n

Gaonkar is a successful financier like her ex-husband, and earned a Master’s degree from Harvard. She founded her own hedge fund in 2022, called SurgoCap Partners.<\/p>\n

SurgoCap Partners made its launch with an estimated $1.8 billion in assets under its management – making it the largest financial launch ever, that was led by a woman.<\/p>\n

The entrepreneur has also signed the Giving Pledge, which is only open to billionaires.<\/p>\n

The Giving Pledge, started by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, is a public promise that is made to give away the majority of one’s wealth to help aid philanthropic causes.<\/p>\n

Last month, her German financier ex and his new girlfriend Reese looked totally loved-up as the pair passionately kissed during a holiday in Saint-Tropez.<\/p>\n

\"Byrne <\/p>\n

Byrne and Gaonkar \u2014 who first met in 2016 \u2014 live together in New York; The pair seen in 2024 at the Dune 2 premiere<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The glamorous pair have attended several events together over the years; Seen in 2022 at The Moth Ball 25th Anniversary Gala<\/p>\n

\"Gaonkar <\/p>\n

Gaonkar is a successful financier, and earned a Master’s degree from Harvard. She founded her own hedge fund in 2022, called SurgoCap Partners; Pictured August 5 in New York<\/p>\n

\"Gaonkar's \"Witherspoon <\/p>\n

Gaonkar’s ex-husband, German financier Oliver Haarmann, 57, is currently dating Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon, 48; (L)\u00a0Haarmann seen in\u00a02016, (R)\u00a0Witherspoon seen\u00a02024<\/p>\n

Haarmann is a founding partner of Searchlight Capital Partners, a private equity investment firm.<\/p>\n

The Oscar-winner began dating the hunky billionaire last year following her shock split in 2023 from Jim Toth, 55, her husband of 12 years.<\/p>\n

Legendary US rock band Talking Heads – consisting of front man Byrne, bassist Tina Weymouth, drummer Chris Fantz and guitarist Jerri Harrison – shot to stardom after forming in 1975.<\/p>\n

During a 16-year period together the band achieved commercial and critical success thanks to much-loved tracks such as Once in a Lifetime and Road to Nowhere before they split in 1991.<\/p>\n

In the same interview that subtly announced his engagement, Byrne also dismissed the idea of a Talking Heads reunion, calling it a ‘fool\u2019s errand.’<\/p>\n

‘On a practical level, trying to recreate the feeling that people had when they were in their early 20s? The time that they first heard that music? That\u2019s a fool\u2019s errand. And besides, I\u2019m really enjoying what I\u2019m doing,’ he shared.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fans had hopes for a reunion after the band teased a major announcement in June.<\/p>\n

The news, however, was simply the premiere of the first music video for their iconic song, Psycho Killer, featuring Saoirse Ronan.<\/p>\n

Talking Heads announced their split in December 1991, with the bandmembers excluding David briefly and continuing touring as Shrunken Heads.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The band have not performed together since 1984, aside from a brief reunion in 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When the group split, Chris said their breakup had been caused by David and that he had learned his bandmate was leaving from a Los Angeles Times article.<\/p>\n

\"Meanwhile <\/p>\n

Meanwhile Byrne was previously married to Adelle Lutz from 1987 to 2004; They are pictured in 1997<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The former couple share daughter Malu; Seen with their daughter in 1991 in New York City<\/p>\n

\"After <\/p>\n

After much critical and commercial success, Talking Heads split in 1991 with fans longing for their return since; Jerry Harrison, Byrne, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth pictured 1980<\/p>\n

He said at the time: ‘As far as we’re concerned, the band never really broke up. David just decided to leave.’<\/p>\n

‘We were never too pleased about the way David handled the situation.’<\/p>\n

They have four albums named in the 2003 Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.<\/p>\n

The group reportedly turned down a whopping $80million offered to them by Live Nation last December for a reunion tour consisting of six to eight festival and concert gigs, Billboard reported.<\/p>\n

Byrne’s first new solo album in seven years, Who Is The Sky?, is set for release on September 5.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Talking Heads frontman David Byrne revealed he is engaged to his much younger girlfriend\u00a0Mala Gaonkar. The\u00a073-year-old musician and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3940],"tags":[4080,92,77,9142,813,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-359077","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-new-york-times","12":"tag-tvshowbiz","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115060381464137798","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}