Tony Bennett Claims He 'Met' His Wife Before She Was Born
By Jackie Willis
(ETONLINE) – There's love at first sight, and then there's Tony Bennett's story.
The 90-year-old singer has been married to Susan Benedetto for nine years, but says he "met" her long before they first spoke. Bennett writes in his new memoir, Just Getting Started, that he posed with his wife's parents, Dayl and Marion Crow, during a meet-and-greet in New York City in 1966. At the time, Bennett says that Benedetto's mother was pregnant with her.
"As fate would have it, Marion was pregnant at the time with …Susan!" Bennett, who was 40 years old at the time of the photo, recalls. "It's a photo we all laugh about [now], knowing the incredible turn of events that followed."
When Benedetto, now 50, was just a teenager, she was the president of Bennett's San Francisco fan club, and at age 19, she attended his concert in the bay area, and asked to go backstage. "The request was sent to me, and it tickled me that someone of her age was so devoted to my music," he writes. "I not only agreed to say hello to her backstage but asked her to be my date for the evening, and that's how it all really began …foreshadowed by a backstage photo taken in 1966!"
Bennett -- who was previously married to Patricia Beech and Sandra Grant --admits that they weren't oblivious to their 40-year age difference. "I can't say that we didn't notice the age difference when we first met," he notes.
"But I can say that after all of these years together," Bennett adds. "We don't notice it much now. We're compatible in all ways."
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