Helen Reddy was born in Melbourne, Australia, on October 25, 1941, so this October 25 marks what would have been her 85th birthday. She died in Los Angeles on September 29, 2020, at 78. Fans remember the voice behind “I Am Woman.” Fewer remember that the man who pushed that voice onto American radio was also her husband.
Jeff Wald managed her career for well over a decade while they were married. Their split became front-page tabloid material and left her scrambling to rebuild. How the two of them finally ended up is the part of the story that rarely gets told.
How Did Helen Reddy Meet Jeff Wald?
Reddy came from a show business family and first sang on stage with her parents as a small child. In 1966 she won an Australian television talent contest called Bandstand Starflight International. The prize sent her to New York, but Mercury Records passed on signing her, according to Obituaries Australia.
She stayed in New York anyway, raising her young daughter Traci from her first marriage to Kenneth Weate. Wikipedia and Obituaries Australia both describe how she met Wald at a party in the city. He was then a young employee at the William Morris Agency. Wald later recalled that they married three days after meeting, a detail Yahoo News also reported in its obituary. Most accounts date the wedding to 1968.
The couple moved to Chicago and then to Los Angeles. According to Billboard, Wald landed his wife a record deal with Capitol Records in 1971. That deal produced the song that would define her.
What Did “I Am Woman” Do For Their Marriage?
Reddy wrote the lyrics herself because she could not find a song that said how proud she felt to be a woman, according to Obituaries Australia. Guitarist Ray Burton wrote the music. The single stalled at first, then climbed back onto the Billboard chart and reached No. 1 in December 1972. That same month she gave birth to the couple’s son, Jordan.
At the 1973 Grammy Awards she won Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. The Recording Academy’s own account says she thanked her husband in the speech before closing with the line that made headlines. She thanked God “because She makes everything possible.”
The hits kept coming. “Delta Dawn” and “Angie Baby” also reached No. 1. She hosted episodes of The Midnight Special, played a singing nun in Airport 1975 and starred in Disney’s Pete’s Dragon in 1977. Her 1974 album was even titled Love Song for Jeffrey, a tribute to Wald.
Wald’s own power grew alongside hers. Billboard reported that his management company went on to represent Donna Summer and George Carlin, along with Crosby, Stills and Nash. By the end of the decade, though, the partnership at home was coming apart.
Why Was It Called “Hollywood’s Dirtiest Divorce”?
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Wald’s heavy cocaine use was cited as one of the main reasons the marriage failed. Wikipedia, citing People magazine’s 1983 coverage, reports that the couple had separated by January 1981. Reddy filed for divorce that year and withdrew the petition the next day. “After 13 years of marriage, a separation of one month is too short to make a decision,” she said at the time.
The reprieve did not last. They separated again in 1982, and the divorce became final in January 1983. A custody fight over Jordan, then 10, landed on the cover of People. Obituaries Australia notes that the magazine called the split “Hollywood’s dirtiest divorce.”
The fallout hit her career hard. Reddy claimed that Wald got her blacklisted in the industry, Yahoo News reported. Obituaries Australia says she ended up heavily in debt with her career in tatters. She married Milton Ruth, a drummer in her band, in June 1983. They divorced in 1995.
She rebuilt on the stage instead. Theater was an area where Wald had little influence, according to Wikipedia, and she went on to play Mrs. Johnstone in Blood Brothers on Broadway in 1995 and in London’s West End. In 2002 she gave a farewell concert and moved back to Australia, where she earned a degree in clinical hypnotherapy. A duet at her half-sister Toni Lamond’s 80th birthday party coaxed her back to performing in 2011.
Her final years were quieter and harder. Reports of a dementia diagnosis first surfaced in 2015, CBS News noted, and she moved into the Motion Picture and Television Fund’s care center in Woodland Hills, California. That is where her story with Wald found its last chapter.
Did Helen Reddy And Jeff Wald Ever Make Peace?
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They did, and Wald said so himself on the day she died. After Traci and Jordan announced their mother’s death on her official Facebook page, Wald posted his own tribute on Instagram. “It took a while but we managed to become friends again after the divorce,” he wrote, as reported by CBS News. He added that they “had many ups and downs, but more ups than downs.”
Wald also shared how her last day unfolded. He said their daughter Traci had spent the morning with her mother, and that Reddy died soon afterward at the Motion Picture and Television Home. Her children called her “a wonderful mother, grandmother and a truly formidable woman” in their statement. You can read more about them in our look at Helen Reddy’s children.
Wald outlived his former wife by just over a year. Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter both reported that he died on November 12, 2021, at 77. The person who confirmed his death to the press was Traci, the same daughter who had sat with Helen on her final morning.