Steven Tyler, the lead singer for Aerosmith, was Liv Tyler’s biological father when she was eight years old. Recently, the actress appeared on The Jonathan Ross Show where she discussed discovering the truth and revealed details about her unique family and childhood.
In the latter part of 1976, singer and former Playboy playmate Bebe Buell had an affair with Steven Tyler. The meeting led to Liv’s birth in a New York City hospital the following July. While Tyler was battling a heroin addiction, Buell kept his paternity a secret from Liv out of concern for her safety. The model’s ex-husband, Todd Rundgren, and she “made an agreement that he would be Liv’s father and if it ever became an issue, we’d tell her at 18,” she recalls.
However, Liv would find out about her biological father much earlier. She met Steven Tyler in the pub after her mother took her to see Todd Rundgren perform when she was nine years old. He bought Liv a Shirley Temple even though she had no idea who he was at the time. She quickly grew close to the leader of Aerosmith and even began talking to photographs of him frequently after falling “madly in love” with him. “It was a moment that was greater than me; it was almost spiritual,” she said in an interview with The Guardian. There is a sparkle and excitement between your bodies when you meet family. DNA and genes must somehow be chemical in nature. When I first met him as a young girl, I immediately felt a tremendous connection. At first, I was unsure of why, but I soon understood.
She also told Jonathan, “Honestly, the whole affair is quite an emotional narrative.” “I was highly loved and well cared for by all my family, which was amazing,” my mother said of the time she gave birth to me. “My mother was quite young when she had me, and there was a little bit of doubt about where I came from.”
“I kind of figured it out because he looked just like me and I have a sister named Mia who is a year younger than me and I saw her standing at the side of the stage at a performance and I was literally like looking at my twin,” Liv continued about how she learned the truth.
Just 17 months after Liv was born, Steven’s daughter from his second marriage to Cyrinda Foxe, Mia, was born. She “looked precisely like me,” and when I noticed that my mother was crying, I “kind of pieced it all together.”
The secret was eventually revealed, and Steven and Liv soon started to treat one another as father and daughter. Tyler’s participation in the 1994 music video for Aerosmith’s song “Crazy” must be acknowledged, although it doesn’t strike me as very patriotic.
In the end, Todd Rundgren and Buell split up, but he remained a significant figure in Liv’s life. She has treated Rundgren and Tyler as father figures ever since.
She stated, “Todd was such an amazing [guy].” People always talk about Steven, and they always share these anecdotes, but Todd has had such a positive impact on my life that I still consider him to be my father.
Todd and the mother of two remain great friends. “I adore him so much, and I’m very grateful to him. You see, it reminds me of my dad when he holds me. And he’s really strong and protective,” she said in a 2012 interview with Wonderland magazine.
The brunette spoke on The Jonathan Ross Show about her 10-month-old baby Sailor, who she has with her fiancé David Gardner, as well as their choice to name David Beckham as Sailor’s godfather.
They made the right decision, Liv joked with the host, because the soccer star “gives really wonderful presents,” before genuinely stating: “And he’s a real gentleman, he’s a very elegant person so very sweet… He adores having children.