Seventy-three-year-old David Byrne, lead vocalist of Talking Heads, announces his engagement to his significantly younger partner, following close to ten years of dating.
Mala Gaonkar, a successful financier and businesswoman, has recently made headlines for her personal life, as she is now in a relationship with David Byrne, the frontman of the iconic band The Talking Heads.
Gaonkar, who previously was married to Oliver Haarmann, has been dating Byrne for nearly a decade. The couple resides in New York together. Gaonkar, who earned a Master's degree from Harvard, founded her own hedge fund, SurgoCap Partners, in 2022, managing an estimated $1.8 billion in assets upon its launch, making it the largest financial launch ever led by a woman.
Byrne, known for hits like Once in a Lifetime and Road to Nowhere, formed The Talking Heads in 1975 with Tina Weymouth, Chris Fantz, and Jerri Harrison. The band achieved commercial and critical success but has not performed together since 1984, aside from a brief reunion in 2023. Byrne dismissed the idea of a Talking Heads reunion in an interview.
Meanwhile, Haarmann, a founding partner of Searchlight Capital Partners, is now in a relationship with Reese Witherspoon. Gaonkar and Haarmann divorced after welcoming two sons together. Details about Gaonkar's career and philanthropic activities after her marriage to Haarmann and their subsequent divorce are not widely reported.
Gaonkar and Byrne first met in 2016 while working on a production at the Stanford Arts Institute. Byrne confirmed their engagement in an interview with The Times.
Reese Witherspoon is currently dating Oliver Haarmann, marking a new chapter in the lives of these prominent figures. While Gaonkar and Byrne continue to make headlines with their relationship, the future of The Talking Heads remains uncertain.
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