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Bette Midler’s ‘outrageous’ husband Martin von Haselberg – and his many faces: from an anarchic performance artist, to a commodities trader, to a devoted husband and father
By Ishani Sarkar
August 28, 2024
Bette Midler’s ‘outrageous’ husband Martin von Haselberg – and his many faces: from an anarchic performance artist to a commodities trader to a devoted husband and father
Want to know the secret to making a marriage last? According to legendary American actress and singer Bette Midler, it is not to sleep together, and the Hocus Pocus star means it literally.
Last month, while promoting her latest film, The Fabulous Four, in which she stars alongside her daughter, Sophie von Haselberg, Midler revealed to Entertainment Tonight that she and her husband, Martin von Haselberg, sleep in separate bedrooms because of his snoring. Nevertheless, the 78-year-old added that their marriage has been “a fabulous ride” as they near their 40th wedding anniversary.
Earlier in July, Midler told Today’s Hoda Kotb that, like her character Marilyn in The Fabulous Four, she had a whirlwind romance with her now-husband. She was the one who proposed, and they got married after just six weeks of getting to know each other.
An Elvis impersonator officiated their wedding at the Starlight Chapel in Las Vegas. The newlyweds then lived in separate houses for two months because, as Midler says, “I hardly knew him!” The Grammy winner now calls her marriage “astonishing … just like my career”.
Where is Martin von Haselberg from?
Martin von Haselberg was born in 1949 in the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires, as the youngest of four boys. Per an interview in the LA Times, he grew up in Germany and England. Sent to boarding school at 12, he admits to having been a “terrible student”. Von Haselberg changed schools multiple times because, he says, his teachers found him rebellious. He also studied Greek and Latin when he was young, and attended drama school in London—the youngest of four boys. According to an interview in the LA Times, he grew up in Germany and England. Sent to boarding school at 12, he admits to having been a “terrible student.” Von Haselberg changed schools multiple times because, he says, his teachers found him rebellious. He also studied Greek and Latin when he was young.
His varied career
Martin von Haselberg started in the 1970s as one-half of the performance art duo Kipper Kids with Brian Routh, who died in 2018. The LA Times described their work as “performance art involving foodstuffs, firecrackers, and a lot of whiskey.”
The anarchic duo performed at the Munich Olympics in 1972 and was also associated with the early years of the punk movement. They were popular in Europe and the US, but von Haselberg told Elsewhere magazine about this popularity, “I don’t know why people come to our shows. I think audiences enjoy being violated, and I don’t know what that is. Perhaps they are crazy.”
Midler’s husband also used the name Harry Kipper in his parallel career as a commodities trader. “I’ve been trading commodities since before I went to drama school and did the Kipper Kids,” he told the LA Times in 1986.
Today, it is the name he goes by on Instagram (@harrykipper), where he posts pictures of art, nature, or his feet. Speaking of art, his works as a visual artist have even been displayed at MoMA in New York.
Von Haselberg is also an actor and filmmaker. According to his IMDB page, he directed Midler’s music video for “My One True Friend.” His acting credits include 2019’s Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese and the 80s comedy-drama series Moonlighting, starring Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd.
How did he meet Bette Midler?
According to People, the couple met in LA in 1981 at a concert by the rock band King Crimson. Two years later, they met again at another club, where von Haselberg asked for Midler’s number. It was another year before he dared call her, but things moved quickly.
Midler told journalist Elisa Leonelli in 1988: “I knew immediately that Martin was outrageous when I first met him. I liked that he was not afraid to be different, that he was an outsider like I am, that he was not complacent, that he stood aside from the mainstream.”
He is his wife’s “support system”
Bonnie Bruckheimer, a friend of Midler’s, revealed in a 1991 interview with Vanity Fair that von Haselberg is “a tremendous support system for her. He is a loving father as well as a loving husband”. In a recent interview with People, Midler also couldn’t stop gushing over his parenting, saying, “My husband is probably the greatest father who ever lived.” Sophie von Haselberg calls her father “my cool dad.”
