Rock star Bruce Springsteen Monday said he remains committed to his wife, singer Patti Scialfa, denying reports the pair have split.
“Due to the unfounded and ugly rumors that have appeared in the papers over the last few days, I felt they shouldn’t pass without comment,” he wrote in a posting that appeared on his official Web site, www.brucespringsteen.net. “Patti and I have been together for 18 years — the best 18 years of my life.
“We have built a beautiful family we love and want to protect and our commitment to one another remains as strong as the day we were married,” he wrote.
Springsteen’s statement came after a gossip item, published last Thursday in the New York Post and spread widely in the media, said the couple had separated.
The Post reported that the musician, known as “The Boss,” had been spending time with a Sept. 11 widow he met while helping organize a benefit concert for families of World Trade Center victims.
It said Springsteen, whose well-known albums include “Greetings from Asbury Park,” “Born to Run” and “The Rising,” a collection of songs inspired by the events of Sept. 11, was staying in a guest cottage at the couple’s home in Colts Neck, New Jersey.
“They’re separated, but everyone has been sworn to secrecy,” a friend told the Post.
Other media, however, reported seeing the pair, hand in hand, on Friday, shopping for antiques in Red Bank, New Jersey, where they reportedly picked up an old guitar and an old mandolin and gave a five-minute impromptu concert.
Scialfa, 53, is a vocalist who sings with Springsteen and the E Street Band and has put out two albums of her own. She and the 56-year-old megastar have been married since 1991, and they have three teenage children.
Scialfa sang and toured with Springsteen’s band while he was still married to his first wife, Julianne Phillips.