LOS ANGELES, Sept. 24 (UPI) — Jewel details her 1990s romance with Sean Penn in her new memoir, Never Broken: Songs Are Only Half the Story.
The 41-year-old singer opened up about the hush-hush relationship in the book, revealing she fell in love with the 50-year-old actor after his reportedly persistent advances. Penn first contacted the musician after her 1995 appearance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien to ask her to write a song for his movie The Crossing Guard.
“We spoke on the phone a lot and he was a fantastic flirt and I did not mind one bit,” she recalled. “But I was no fool and knew I was most likely a trifle to him. I intended to give him no such conquest. I put that man through his paces and he took it in stride. He began to court me in earnest, following me around on tour, acting as a my de facto roadie.”
Jewel, who was just coming to fame, and Penn, who was on a break from future wife Robin Wright at the time, largely kept their romance under wraps. The actor would marry Wright the next year, while Jewel went on to wed Ty Murray in 2008.
“It was hard on me,” the singer told Howard Stern of the breakup this week. “He really believed in me at a time when nobody else did. And he really made me feel good about myself and I was so desperate for that. Having that go away was hard.”
Jewel and Murray welcomed son Kase in 2011, and announced their divorce in July 2014. Penn and Wright had split several years previous in July 2010, and share 24-year-old daughter Dylan and 22-year-old son Hopper.
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