Singer and guitarist Dave Grohl (55 years old), leader of the rock band Foo Fighters and former drummer of Nirvana, has always been very reticent to talk about his private life. But now he has become the protagonist of dozens of headlines, in media around the world, for an intimate revelation that he himself has shared on his social networks. This Tuesday, September 10, the artist revealed that he has had a daughter out of wedlock. “Recently, I have become the father of a new daughter, born out of wedlock. I plan to be a loving and supportive father to her,” begins the message on your Instagram accountwhere he has 1.4 million followers. “I love my wife and my children, and I am doing everything I can to regain their trust and earn their forgiveness,” he explained in a statement in which he has disabled comments. Grohl has not identified the mother of his new daughter and the singer’s representative has not made additional comments.
Grohl, born in Warren, Ohio, has been married to former model and producer Jordyn Blum (48 years old) since 2003. The couple has three daughters together: Ophelia, 10 years old; Harper, 15; and Violet, 18. He completed his message on social networks asking for “consideration towards all the children involved as we move forward together.” Which suggests that this is not a scandal that, at least for now, will mean the end of his marriage. The singer’s last public appearance with Blum was at the Wimbledon tennis tournament in London, last July.
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The guitarist, in his few statements about his family, told Time in 2009: “I used to be on tour nine months a year. Now I don’t like to be away from my daughters for more than 12 days.” “Everything I do has changed. When you have children, you see life in a different light. You feel love more deeply and maybe you are a little more compassionate,” he added in the same interview.
The news of his fatherhood came as a surprise to many, as Grohl, who is also involved in numerous philanthropic initiatives, is one of the most friendly and beloved people in the rock world today. Among his contributions to humanitarian causes are his barbecues, such as the one he held in the street for the Calabasas firefighters during the devastating California wildfires in 2018. He also holds charity barbecues with a food bank every year just before Christmas.
Extramarital affairs are nothing new for the rocker. In an interview with The Guardian, Grohl admitted that an affair led to his divorce in 1997 from his first wife, photographer Jennifer Youngblood, after a three-year marriage. The British outlet also reported that the divorce led guitarist Pat Smear to leave the Foo Fighters, a band led by Grohl, since Smear and Youngblood were close friends. The guitarist eventually reconciled with his bandmate and rejoined the group.
In 2003, snowboarder Tina Basich claimed in her memoir, Pretty Good for a Girl, that the singer cheated on her during their two-year relationship in the late 1990s. Rumours have also linked Grohl to Christina Aguilera and Winona Ryder, but he denied them in a radio interview, Blabbermouth reported in 2002.
Jordyn Blum and Dave Grohl at Wimbledon on July 2, 2024.Karwai Tang (WireImage/Getty Images)
The Ohio musician played drums in the pioneering grunge band Nirvana from 1990 until 1994, when vocalist Kurt Cobain took his own life at the age of 27. Shortly after, he formed the Foo Fighters, a band that has won 15 Grammy Awards and whose earnings reached $47 million in 2018 (42 million euros at the current exchange rate), according to Forbes. In addition, Grohl was awarded the Godlike Genius award in 2011, awarded by the New Musical Express to the most dazzling rock stars, and established himself as one of the most respected musicians on the international scene. Foo Fighters released a new album in June 2023, But Here we Are, the first since the accidental death of drummer and co-founder Taylor Hawkins. They have given concerts in the United States and Europe from May to September and from next November they will begin their tour in New Zealand and Australia.
Grohl is not the only celebrity who has had to acknowledge fatherhood outside of marriage. NBA player Tristan Thompson had a daughter with model Maralee Nichols in 2021, while he and his partner at the time, media personality Khloé Kardashian, were going to become parents for the second time through a surrogate mother (a case that made thousands of headlines and many scenes in the family reality show). Another high-profile case was that of Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was 2011 when the actor, after ceasing to be governor of California, admitted to his wife, Maria Shriver, that a decade earlier he had been unfaithful to her with a housekeeper and they had a son. Joseph Baena was born on October 2, 1997, a few days after the birth of Schwarzenegger’s youngest son with Shriver, who ended the marriage upon learning of the existence of this illegitimate child with whom the actor now allows himself to be photographed.
