Nick Nolte and Barbra Streisand Have a ‘Special Place’ in Each Other’s Hearts

Nick Nolte’s looking more proper and less bedraggled and unkept these days but he’s still a very reclusive guy who’s choosy who he’s friends with. The fact that he’s maintained a close friendship with Barbra Streisand shows how important she is to him, according to sources, who say it was the singer who helped to convince Nick to clean up his act.

“He still has a lot of respect among Hollywood peers and Barbra is high up there,” a source exclusively tells Closer. “They had amazing chemistry back in the day when they were making Prince of Tides, but they look at each other as brother and sister now. He’s with his current wife and very happy with her; Barbra has Jim [James Brolin]. But they will always have a special place in their hearts for each other.”

Following Nick’s DUI arrest in 2002, Barbra has “helped” him stay sober, according to the insider. “She’s supported his dreams and helped him with roles when he asked for it,” the source says. “She was one of his best directors. They’ve had each other over for dinner, just quiet couples’ dates. That’s the way they like it. They’re both shy, despite appearances, but they can talk about a variety of subjects and have each other’s backs.”

In his 2018 memoir, Rebel: My Life Outside the Lines, Nick, 83, recalled meeting Barbra 82, for the first time in 1989 when she invited him over to read for his part in 1991’s The Prince of Tides. “I was powerfully drawn to her just as she was to me, so much so that I knew that early on we needed to talk about the reasons we shouldn’t slip into a romantic and sexual relationship with each other as we worked,” he wrote.

The actor admitted that it was hard to resist the chemistry between himself and Barbra while they filmed the movie. “We can live in the fantasy of a relationship and that will survive, but an actual physical relationship might not survive the film,” he wrote. Nick also claimed that Barbra begged him to, “Come out and live with me,” and told him, “I want to be with you.” However, he said he turned down the offer, as he was raising his son Brawley at the time.

Nick shares Brawley with ex-wife Rebecca Linger. He also has a daughter, Sophia, with his current wife, Clytie Lane, whom he married in 2016. Before Rebecca, Nick was married two other times to Sheila Page and Sharyn Haddad.

Meanwhile, Barbra has been married to James, 83, since 1998. She has one son, Jason Gould, with ex-husband Elliott Gould, whom she married in 1963. Their divorce was finalized in 1971. Over the years, Barbra has been in a number of high-profile relationships with men including Liam Neeson, Clint Eastwood, Richard Gere, Jon Voight and more.

Of meeting her now-husband for the first time, Barbra explained in 2021, “We were set up as a blind date, and I was so shy that I came into the house and I went downstairs to be with the children and play with them until I had to sit down at the table. … I expected a guy with a brown beard and brown, wavy hair, like a mountain man, and I saw a guy that had all his hair cut off, no beard. And I walked by him, I put my hand through his hair and said, ‘Who f--ked up your hair?’”