Barbara Bach, the unforgettable Triple X from The Spy Who Loved Me, may have played a Bond girl who didn’t need rescuing, but in real life, she was looking for something far more meaningful—a partner who truly saw her. She found that in her future husband, Sir Richard Starkey, known to the world as Ringo Starr.
At 78, Bach remains an icon of 1970s elegance, her role opposite Roger Moore in the 1977 Bond film making her an instant star. As Major Anya Amasova, she was one of the rare Bond girls who matched 007 blow for blow. Off camera, she wasn’t shy about critiquing the character that helped launch her international fame. In a 1983 People interview, she famously called James Bond “a chauvinist pig who uses girls to shield him against bullets.” Moore himself agreed, once calling Bond “a male chauvinist pig” as well.
Before The Spy Who Loved Me, Bach had already built an impressive résumé in Italian cinema, co-starring in Black Belly of the Tarantula with fellow Bond alumnae Claudine Auger and Barbara Bouchet. Her Bond performance pushed her career into high gear, leading to starring roles such as Up the Academy and the 1981 comedy Caveman, where her life changed forever.
It was during the filming of Caveman that she and Ringo Starr met. Both were heading to Mexico to shoot the movie and happened to cross paths at LAX. At the time, they were simply two actors working on the same project. They had separate lives, separate partners, and no idea their worlds were about to shift. According to a Playboy interview, Bach said everything changed “within a week—the last week of shooting. We changed from friendly love to being in love.”
Starr remembers the moment vividly. In a 2021 interview, he said, “I loved her from when I first saw her at LAX in 1980… I’m blessed she’s in my life, that’s all I can ever say.”
Remarkably, Bach had actually attended a Beatles concert at Shea Stadium in 1965—but she wasn’t there for them. She later joked that her sister Marjorie was the true fan, even showing up in a Beatles wig, while Bach herself preferred Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, and The Rolling Stones. Life has its twists, though: Marjorie later married Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh, who eventually played in Ringo’s All-Starr Band.
Just months after John Lennon’s death, Bach and Starr married on April 27, 1981. Their wedding guest list included Paul McCartney and George Harrison—an extraordinary gathering of music history in one room. But the couple had already faced their first major challenge together: a near-fatal car accident shortly before the wedding. After walking away from that wreck, Starr said, “We decided we wouldn’t spend any time apart.” In more than 40 years of marriage, the longest they’ve ever been apart was five days.
Their bond only strengthened as they faced life’s struggles. In 1988, both entered rehab together and have remained sober ever since. When their 40th anniversary arrived in 2021, Starr posted a photo from their wedding with the caption, “It was 40 years ago today the love of my life said yes yes yes.”
Between them, they blended a family of five children—Starr’s three with his late first wife, Maureen Cox, and Bach’s two with her former husband, Augusto Gregorini. Together, they also founded The Lotus Foundation, a charitable organization supporting causes ranging from homelessness and addiction recovery to animal welfare and cancer support. Starr even donates all the proceeds from his artwork to the foundation.
After four decades together, the love the former Bond girl and the legendary Beatle share is still unmistakably strong. “I love the man, and that’s it,” Bach has said simply. Starr mirrors the sentiment wholeheartedly: “I think I love Barbara as much today as I did when we met—and I’m beyond blessed that she loves me and we’re still together.”
Their story is a reminder that sometimes, love finds its way not through a glamorous film role or a rock-and-roll moment, but in the quiet connection between two people who choose each other again and again.
If you enjoy stories about lasting love, this one is a beautiful reminder that real-life romance can be even more inspiring than what we see on screen.
