Barbra Streisand’s memoir reveals relationship secrets and stage fright dating back to “Funny Girl”

Barbra Streisand is a force to be reckoned with and wants the world to know that. The beloved, acclaimed actress and singer is one of the very few people in the world with an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony) and in her new memoir, she’s ready to share how she achieved her six decades of esteem and success.  

In the memoir “My Name is Barbra,” Streisand explains why she hated the spelling of her birth name Barbara and the change to drop the extra A. But she also depicted the tale of a Jewish girl who grew up in Flatbush, Brooklyn fighting against all odds to become the legend she is today.

The star goes into details about her childhood discussing experiences like the loss of her father when she was only 15 months old or her mother telling her she’d never make it as an actress because she wasn’t pretty enough. It’s clear that the ride to fame wasn’t easy for Streisand, and at almost every opportunity in her film career, men were fighting to cut her down and clip her wings. 

In her most recognizable role as Fanny Price in “Funny Girl,” the star revealed that her tense relationship with co-star and Charlie Chaplin‘s son, Sydney Chaplin, was so anxiety-inducing it created a deep fear of performance within Streisand. She said that Chaplin was often incredibly cruel to her on stage, which led to panic attacks and stage fright, eventually driving her into therapy.

During “Funny Girl’s” premiere in 1964, Streisand and Chaplin engaged in a brief flirtation even though they were both married. But Streisand ended it, which “wounded [Chaplin’s] vanity and pride.” He then retaliated against her every night they went on stage, cursing her out under his breath. She described their interactions as a “nightmare.”

“He’d taunt me, calling me a b***h, or worse . . . the most vicious names,” she said. “While the audience assumed he was whispering sweet nothings in my ear, he would actually be jeering, ‘You really f***ed up that scene.’”

Streisand told CBS News that post-“Funny Girl,” she “never lost that, that fear of performing, fear of forgetting my lines.”

Other men that she worked with, such as Mandy Patinkin on the Streisand-directed film “Yentl,” stated their discontent when Streisand showed no interest on set. She recalled an interaction with Patinkin where he said, “‘I thought we were going to have a more personal relationship,’ ‘What?’ I had no idea what he was talking about. ‘I thought we were going to have an affair.'”

In the span of her six decades-long career, she met and interacted with stars like Elvis Presley, President John F. Kennedy, Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and many more. But the starlet found love with her husband and actor James Brolin, who she has been married to for 25 years. It took her three proposals to say yes, she said to CBS.

When asked if there was anyone who could play her in a biopic, she said “I don’t know of anyone who can.”