Jewel firmly believes that she doesn’t need a man to define her.
The 49-year-old Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter spoke about her love life and her experiences with “men in positions of power” over her decades as a musician in an interview with People magazine ahead of the opening of her immersive art exhibition “The Portal: An Art Experience by Jewel” in Arkansas.
Reflecting on her relationship with Sean Penn in the mid-90s, the singer revealed that after the release of her debut album, “Pieces of You,” she refrained from using the romance to promote her music.
“Even when I was dating Sean at the very beginning, nobody knew I was dating him. I didn’t want to walk the red carpet with him. I was just very proud,” she told People. “I wasn’t famous and my album flopped – so, it was a spectacular failure. I remember going to the Venice Film Festival with him and I could have walked the red carpet and gotten a lot of media attention.”
She continued, “People would have asked, ‘Who is that girl?’ and I could have promoted my album. But I would rather have remained unknown for the rest of my life than have the world get to know me that way. I don’t need the fame that much. I need to be fulfilled. I need to be happy. I need to be a songwriter. I wasn’t thirsty in that way.”
Jewel recalled the tough times she went through in her twenties, including being fired after rejecting her boss’s sexual advances and having her car stolen, leaving her homeless. She has previously spoken openly about childhood abuse at the hands of her father, as well as harassment as a young artist.
“It was a violent time, but the Hells Angels were really protective of me. But there is still violence,” she recalls. “Men were in positions of power, from TV stations to record labels, and women were confronted with it on a daily basis.”
Jewel reveals: “The divorce was not easy” and reacts to speculation about a romance with Kevin Costner
In 2008, Jewely married rodeo star Ty Murray and they have a son together, Kase. The couple divorced in 2014, after which the Alaska singer chose parenthood over her career.
“The divorce wasn’t easy. The decision not to work for seven years wasn’t easy. The decision to do something other than music wasn’t easy,” she told People. “Divorces… you go through so much heartache and it’s hard. Because I didn’t want to give up on that dream, I stayed married a lot longer than I probably should have.”
Then in 2022 she released her first new album in seven years, “Freewheelin’ Woman.”
25 years of “Pieces of You”: Jewel on tour with Bob Dylan, Sean Penn romance
“It’s hard to write pop songs that aren’t romantic,” Jewel told USA TODAY this year. “I was proud of ‘Intuition’ – it delivered a deeper concept wrapped up in a pop song. Dancing and singing are my keys to life.”
In 2024, several media outlets speculate about a budding romance between Jewel and “Yellowstone” actor Kevin Costner, whose divorce from his wife of nearly two decades, Christine Baumgartner, was recently finalized.
But the singer doesn’t want to talk about that.
“I found love, and I don’t mean Kevin’s. I’m so happy whether I’m a man or not. It has nothing to do with whether I’m in a relationship or not,” she told People. “I’m more inspired now than I’ve ever been in my life. More inspired than I’ve been since I was 19 or 20 years old.”
“I’m just happy.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jewel avoids questions about her relationship with Kevin Costner and her love life