After the passing of legendary singer Tony Bennett, it is time to look at the loved ones he left behind. He came to prominence in the 1950s and has been making music every decade since, right up until his passing Friday at the age of 96, as NBC News reported. Despite approaching nearly a century on this Earth and struggling with an Alzheimer’s diagnosis for the previous five years, the popular entertainer continued to put out music late into his life, like his 2021 collaboration with Lady Gaga on the album Love For Sale.
While Bennett, whose cause of death is not yet known, leaves behind a legacy as one of the more well-known celebrities who ever lived, not as much is known about his third wife – Susan Crow. Here’s everything you need to know about the famous singer’s wife.
Who is Tony Bennett’s wife Susan Crow?
Susan Crow married Tony Bennett 15 years ago, in 2007. She is in her mid-fifties and was Bennett’s full-time caregiver before he passed away. She was born in San Francisco on September 9, 1966.
She attended Fordham University and Columbia University, according to reports, and worked as an administrative assistant at Merrill Lynch before she moved into teaching.
The couple has no children together, and she’s about forty years younger than her late husband. Bennett is also survived by four children from his two previous wives.
She started a non-profit, Exploring the Arts (ETA), with her husband in 1999, as well as launching a management company named Creative Artists Management.
Bennett described meeting Crow in his 2016 book Just Getting Started, when her mother wanted a photo with the singer backstage.
“As fate would have it, [Susan’s mother] was pregnant at the time with… Susan! It’s a photo we all laugh about, knowing the incredible turn of events that followed.”
The implications of that aside, the couple reportedly met when Crow was in her 20s and Bennett was in his 60s. He elaborated on that in the book as well.
“When she was nineteen she had tickets to see me perform at the Masonic Temple in San Francisco and she put in a request to say hello backstage after the show, probably not expecting a response. The request was sent to me, and it tickled me that someone of her age was so devoted to my music. 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 really all began … foreshadowed by a backstage photo taken in 1966!”
Crow spoke with journalist Anderson Cooper for an interview on 60 Minutes and revealed that Tony was unaware that he had Alzheimer’s disease.
“He recognizes me, thank goodness, his children, you know, we are blessed in a lot of ways. He’s very sweet. He doesn’t know he has it (Alzheimer’s disease),” she said. “I know that his hippocampus, which is the Grand Central Station of memories — and the conduit through which we retrieve memories as well as lay down memories is not working very well.”