- Pat Benatar is best known as a singer.
- She is married to Neil Giraldo.
- Pat was previously married to Dennis T. Benatar.
Pat Benatar, 70, has led a successful music career over the years with hit songs like “Love is a Battlefield,” “Hit Me With Your Best Shot,” and “We Belong,” but she has also led a successful love life. The singer has been married to guitarist Neil Giraldo since 1982 and the lovebirds are still going strong. During their marriage, they also started a family, and are considered one of the most inspirational rock ‘n’ roll couples to date.
Find out more about Neil and his history with Pat as well as Pat’s marriage to her first husband, Dennis T. Benatar below.
Neil Giraldo
Pat first met Neil, who is a guitarist from Cleveland, Ohio, when he joined her band in 1979. They went on to create 15 hit songs that reached the Top 40, won four Grammy Awards, and sold 36 million albums over the course of 40 years, but in the early days, they also struck up a romance with each other. The two were both romantically involved with other people (Pat was married to her fist husband Dennis and Neil was in a relationship with actress Linda Blair) when they had their first introduction, but they eventually felt a connection and ended up dating. Their initial intentions with each other, however, were all about music.
“All I was looking for was a great singer,” Neil told CBS News, when talking about his intention for joining Pat’s band. “I just wanted to find that, so I could write songs, produce, make great records.”
Pat agreed. “I didn’t want to be a solo artist. I wanted what Robert Plant and Jimmy Page had together, or Keith [Richards] and Mick [Jagger]. I wanted that back and forth, back and forth, back and forth,” she told the outlet.
As Pat started going through her divorce in 1979, Neil told her he suspected Linda may have been cheating on him, according to to Pat’s interview with Classic Rock & Culture Magazine. She admitted her first thought when he told her was, “You are mine.” The lovebirds went on to become romantically involved and eventually decided to spontaneously get hitched during a trip to Hawaii in 1982. They reportedly persuaded two random strangers to join them at the ceremony to be witnesses and the rest is history.
Pat and Neil started their family when their daughter Haley was born in 1985. They also had a second daughter, Hana, in 1994, and continue to live their lives with a close and loving bond.
Dennis T. Benatar
Before Pat found a love match with Neil, she married her first husband Dennis in 1972. The former spouses were actually high school sweethearts and started their romance when they were just teenagers. Pat was just 19 when they got hitched and their marriage lasted until 1979. It’s unclear what led to their divorce, but Pat went on to date the guitarist in her band, Neil and they married in 1982. Like Pat, Dennis has also worked in a successful career. He is listed as a production manager and has worked on various films, including A League of their Own and Phone Booth, according to IMDB.