David Bowie’s wife Iman tells fans to stop taking selfies with her

David Bowie’s widow has spoken about her frustration with grieving fans, and says she will never get married again.

Iman with late husband David Bowie. Picture: AP

David Bowie’s widow has spoken of her frustration at the singer’s grieving fans when they take photographs of her in the street.

Iman, a cosmetics entrepreneur and former model, said that the grief of fans could not compare with the loss still felt by his family, who “lost a husband and a father”.

Bowie died from liver cancer in 2016.

In an interview with the online fashion retailer Net-a-porter, Iman, 63, said: “People take pictures of me in the street and say, ‘I am so sorry for your loss.’ I’m like, ‘Don’t touch me. You just took pictures of me. How can you be sorry?’ I get the fans’ grief but it’s not the same. They have lost someone they look up to; we have lost a husband and a father.”

Iman and Bowie married in 1992 and had one child, Alexandria, who is 18. Iman is also stepmother to Duncan Jones, Bowie’s son from a previous marriage.

She said in the interview that she had turned down requests from modelling agencies and fashion designers who wanted Alexandria to model. “I know why they wanted her to model — it’s because she is David Bowie’s daughter,” she said.

She also said that she did not want to get married again, adding: “I do feel very lonely. But do I want a relationship? I can’t say never, but no, not now.”

Bowie, one of the most influential and successful British artists of the past 50 years, died days after the release of his 25th studio album, Blackstar. He had kept the severity of his condition secret from all but a close circle of friends.

Iman and Bowie never spoke about each other in interviews and she said that her daughter thought she was overprotective.

She said that she had told Alexandria to “have a life that is private while you can, because one day it is soon going to be public, so enjoy this”.

She retired from modelling in 1989 and continues to campaign for greater diversity on the catwalk. After her retirement she set up Iman Cosmetics, which is now a multi-million-pound business that specialises in creating foundation for non-caucasian women.

Iman added that she would be happy if her legacy was to have made the fashion industry more welcoming of diversity.

Iman began mixing foundation on her first modelling job, with Vogue in the US in 1976, after being told that nothing available suited her skin tone. Other black models began using her concoctions and now “every brand has 40 shades of foundation”, but “Iman Cosmetics was one of the first that changed the way we think about makeup.

That will be my legacy and I am very happy to be remembered that way,” she said. Five years ago she launched a campaign for diversity, along with the models Naomi Campbell and Bethann Hardison.

The Times