The singer did all the household chores herself, just like everyone else, despite a packed schedule while she was raising her teenage son with her husband David.
The woman who made the song Girls just wanna have fun an anthem for girl power in the 1980s is "still so unusual." Despite being 60+ her offbeat style is still intact; she still flaunts her salmon-colored hair and quirky clothes, which have inspired Madonna, Pink, and Lady Gaga. As a symbol of girl power, she is quite perfect because she never gave up on being her true self.
She is a successful singer and will soon be a comic actress too, thanks to a Golden Girls-like show she is working on with Jane Lynch for Netflix, according to Variety. Previously, she has had a reality TV show called Cyndi Lauper -- Still So Unusual and has released more than 40 singles, which have sold more than 50 million records worldwide.
In an interview with ABC six years ago, the unusual woman called herself part rock star and part working mom, thanks to her busy schedule.
She opened up about how, when her son Declan was 14, whom she was raising with her husband, David Thornton, of more than 20 years, she had many regrets over not being able to give him enough of her time. She and her husband met on the set of Off and Running, and he was talking marriage within two weeks of knowing her. In a way, he made her otherwise volatile life stable.
When they met, she was getting over a break up with a boyfriend of six years, Dave Wolff. Her hits had been drying and she was living alone in a hotel grieving, almost suicidal. She had had a rough and violent past and was also forced to beg on the streets at one point of time.
"It was such a dark time for me. When I was living in that hotel I was two steps off of that balcony. I would go to the studio, and then sit in my dark room and drink vodka. I had to spend most of my time alone. I was grieving. I thought the sadness would never go away," she told Mirror UK.
"Then I met David [who studied at Yale] and everything changed. When we started rehearsing, David was real shy with me. I began to send him teasing notes - it's what I do when I kinda like someone. I wrote that he was a wimp because he didn't do as many press-ups as me. At nights we used to walk on the beach after dinner. The moon was always out on the water, and one night I said: 'I wish I was a kite flying over the waves' and he said: 'Why not be a wave?' I thought 'Oh my God, this man is a poet'," she told the Independent.
They became good friends before they started dating each other. She became very protective of the 37-year-old during the shoot of the film and did not like other women vying for his attention. The couple married in November of 1991 and have one child together. Her husband eventually became the stay-at-home parent, though he has taken up small roles in films like The Notebook, and TV shows, like Law & Order, up until 2014.
"We switch back and forth, and then my job kind of never ends so he stayed," the Time After Time singer said. "You've got to be there for them. Even if you're not in the same room, you're in the same house."
Her reality TV show shed more light on their relationship. In one episode, she complains to David that he "basically raised" Declan and it is painful for her to see him grow up without her around. However, she said she knows she is still providing for him.
"I work a lot because I want to give him everything I never could have," she said. "I didn't grow up with a silver spoon."
She grew up in a working-class part of Queens, N.Y. and waited tables and worked in a thrift store before becoming successful. She even went bankrupt before she was signed by a record company. She has never let her modest beginnings and values out of sight. Just like everyone else, she does domestic chores at home.
"I don't want to be a fake parent," she said. "I don't want to be a fake singer. I don't want to be a fake writer. I don't want to be fake anything. I want to be the real thing."
She has been working incessantly and the wild child of the 80s ironically is in a stable marriage for almost 28 years now. "Well it's hard for David raising both of us," Lauper said. "No, I'm kidding."
They have discussed her slowing down but that day is nowhere near yet. "But we also talked about 'When you're done, you're done. You don't have to do any more. You do what you want to do and that's it,'" Lauper said. "[We're] a couple that's trying to raise a kid and trying to still be together."
Her son, Declan, who is now 21, followed her footsteps and became a musician. He is a rapper and an upcoming star.
References:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/cyndi-lauper-reveals-violent-past-1313658
https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/jane-lynch-cyndi-lauper-comedy-netflix-carol-leifer-1203336611/
