Susan Deixler is best known as the first wife of Barry Manilow, but their relationship happened long before “Mandy,” “Copacabana,” and “Can’t Smile Without You” made him a household name. Susan was Manilow’s high-school sweetheart in Brooklyn. They married in 1964 while they were still very young, separated about a year later, and had the marriage annulled in 1966.
What makes Susan’s story interesting is what she did not do afterward. She did not build a celebrity career from being Barry Manilow’s former wife. As his fame grew, Susan largely remained outside the entertainment world and kept her personal life private.
Decades later, Manilow described Susan as a wonderful wife and made clear that he really had loved her. He has said the marriage failed mainly because he was young and consumed by his desire to build a career in music—not because the relationship had been meaningless.
Who Is Susan Deixler?
Susan Deixler is an American woman known publicly because of her brief marriage to Barry Manilow.
She and Manilow met while attending Eastern District High School in Brooklyn, New York. Manilow graduated from the school in 1961, years before he became one of America’s most successful popular singers.
Susan was therefore part of his life before fame.
She knew Barry before the Las Vegas residencies, Grammy recognition, television specials, sold-out concerts, and millions of records sold.
At that point, he was still Barry Pincus, a young Brooklyn student obsessed with music and trying to decide what kind of adult life he wanted.
That early timing is the main reason people continue searching for Susan today.
How Did Susan Deixler Meet Barry Manilow?
Susan and Barry met at Eastern District High School in Brooklyn.
Reliable biographies identify Susan as his high-school sweetheart.
Their relationship developed before Manilow had a professional music career.
He was already passionate about music and had organized a band while in high school, but he was nowhere close to becoming the star audiences would later know.
Susan was part of a much more ordinary period of his life.
They were two young people from Brooklyn rather than a celebrity and his partner.
A natural related article would be Barry Manilow’s life before fame and his early years in Brooklyn.
What Was Susan Like in High School?
Reliable mainstream biographies provide only limited information about Susan’s school years.
Later accounts from people familiar with Eastern District High School have described her as popular and socially active, but many detailed claims about her clubs, hobbies, and school activities come from secondary sources rather than contemporary records.
One thing is clear: she and Barry formed a serious enough relationship that it continued beyond school and eventually led to marriage.
That relationship was not something Manilow later dismissed as a teenage mistake.
Even decades afterward, he spoke warmly about Susan.
When Was Susan Deixler Born?
Susan’s exact birth date is not strongly documented in major biographical sources.
Some secondary profiles place her birth around 1944 or 1945, which would fit reports that she was around 19 when she married Manilow in 1964.
However, a precise date should not be presented as confirmed without a stronger record.
This is an example of a common problem with celebrity-spouse biographies.
Because Susan never became a public figure in her own right, basic personal details such as her birthday were never widely published.
Her privacy should not be filled with invented precision.
When Did Susan Deixler Marry Barry Manilow?
Susan married Barry Manilow in 1964.
IMDb gives June 1964 as the beginning of their marriage and January 6, 1966, as the date the marriage was annulled.
Other biographical references simply record the marriage as 1964 to 1965 or say it was annulled in 1966. CBS, for example, described Susan as Manilow’s wife from 1964 to 1965.
The apparent difference comes from separating the end of the relationship from the legal annulment.
The clearest summary is that Susan and Barry married in 1964, their relationship broke down roughly a year later, and the annulment was completed in 1966.
How Old Were Susan and Barry When They Married?
They were very young.
Barry was born on June 17, 1943, so he was around 21 when the couple married.
Secondary accounts generally place Susan around 19 at the time.
That age difference is important when considering what happened next.
They were trying to build a marriage while Manilow was becoming increasingly determined to devote his life to music.
He later admitted that he was not mature enough to give Susan the kind of marriage she deserved.
Did Susan Deixler and Barry Manilow Elope?
Reports about their wedding say they initially eloped.
A former high-school acquaintance told RadarOnline that Susan and Barry married in a judge’s chambers at City Hall in 1964. According to that account, Susan’s parents then wanted a traditional Jewish ceremony, leading to another ceremony involving a rabbi.
Because this detailed account comes from a later recollection rather than an official wedding record, the smaller details should be treated cautiously.
But the broader fact of their 1964 marriage is firmly established.
It happened before Manilow’s professional breakthrough and before either could have known how dramatically his life would change.
What Was Barry Manilow Doing During Their Marriage?
Manilow was trying to find his professional direction.
After high school, he initially considered a career in advertising and attended college classes while working. He eventually moved deeper into music, including arranging, playing piano, writing songs, and studying music.
That passion increasingly consumed his time.
Music was not simply a hobby.
It was becoming the central purpose of his life.
And that created a serious problem for a young marriage.
Susan needed a husband who could participate fully in married life.
Barry wanted to spend his nights creating music.
Years later, he acknowledged that those two realities did not fit together.
Why Did Susan Deixler and Barry Manilow Separate?
Manilow has been unusually clear about this.
He has blamed music and his own immaturity.
In later interviews, he explained that he was away night after night making music and could not be a proper husband.
He did not describe Susan as the problem.
Quite the opposite.
Manilow later called her the “perfect wife” while explaining that he walked away because he wanted to pursue what he described as a musical adventure.
That makes their breakup quite different from the way celebrity divorces are often reported.
There was no need for a dramatic villain.
Two young people had married, but one of them realized that his overwhelming ambition was pulling him somewhere else.
Did Playboy Really Influence Barry Manilow’s Decision?
Surprisingly, yes—at least according to Manilow’s own account.
He later explained that he had become desperate while trying to decide between his marriage and pursuing music.
He asked different people for advice and received different answers.
Eventually, he wrote to the advice section of Playboy magazine. Manilow has credited the response he received in December 1965 with helping give him the courage to leave his existing life and fully pursue music.
It is an unusual detail.
But it also shows how uncertain Manilow was at the time.
He did not appear to be casually walking away from Susan.
He was struggling with a major decision about the direction of his life.
Was Their Marriage a Divorce or an Annulment?
It was annulled.
IMDb lists the annulment date as January 6, 1966.
An annulment is legally different from a divorce, although the exact legal grounds used in Susan and Barry’s case are not widely documented in reliable public sources.
For a general biography, it is enough to say that the marriage was annulled in 1966.
Claims explaining the precise legal reason should be treated carefully unless supported by court records.
Did Susan Deixler and Barry Manilow Have Children?
There are no publicly documented children from Susan and Barry’s marriage.
Their relationship was short and ended before Manilow’s major music career began.
Later reports about Susan’s life have said she became a mother after the marriage, but those children were not Manilow’s.
Because Susan’s later family members are private people, there is little reason to publish unnecessary personal information about them.
The key fact is simple:
Susan and Barry Manilow had no known children together.
Was Barry Manilow Already Famous When He Married Susan?
No.
This is one of the biggest reasons Susan’s story remains interesting.
Manilow’s major commercial success came years later.
After his marriage ended, he continued developing his skills as a pianist, arranger, composer, and jingle writer. He famously created or performed advertising music before becoming closely associated with Bette Midler in the early 1970s.
Then his solo career took off.
“Mandy” became a major hit in the 1970s.
More successful songs followed.
By that point, Susan was already part of his distant past.
She had known the ambitious young musician, not the superstar.
Did Barry Leave Susan Because He Was Gay?
Manilow has specifically said no.
This question received renewed attention after he publicly discussed his sexuality and his decades-long relationship with Garry Kief.
Manilow publicly came out as gay in 2017. However, he made a point of saying that his marriage to Susan was genuine.
He said he had been in love with her and that the marriage’s failure was not caused by sexual orientation.
In a later discussion of the relationship, Manilow again said that he had been happy while married and really loved Susan. He instead blamed his inability to balance marriage with his obsession with music.
That distinction matters.
Looking backward at someone’s life after learning about their sexuality can lead people to rewrite earlier relationships too simply.
Manilow’s own account is more complicated.
Who Is Garry Kief?
Garry Kief is Manilow’s longtime partner, manager, and husband.
The two began a relationship in 1978, more than a decade after Susan’s marriage to Manilow ended. They eventually married privately in 2014.
Their relationship remained largely private for decades.
Manilow later explained that attitudes toward gay public figures were very different during the 1970s and that openly discussing his sexuality could have damaged his career.
Susan should therefore not be portrayed as someone who was simply replaced immediately by Garry.
There was a substantial gap between the two relationships.
A useful internal-link opportunity would be Garry Kief and Barry Manilow’s decades-long relationship.
How Did Susan React When Barry Manilow Came Out?
Susan did not launch a major media campaign or publicly attack her former husband.
That is consistent with the way she has handled most of her connection to Manilow.
She has generally remained private.
When Manilow publicly discussed being gay, his own comments about Susan were respectful.
He emphasized that their marriage had contained real love.
There is no strong evidence that Susan attempted to challenge his version of their early relationship.
Her decision not to become part of the publicity surrounding his later personal life fits a pattern that stretches back decades.
What Happened to Susan Deixler After the Annulment?
Susan largely disappeared from mainstream entertainment coverage.
That is perhaps the biggest difference between her life and Barry’s.
Manilow spent the following decades becoming increasingly famous.
Susan chose a much quieter existence.
A tabloid interview circulated in 2000 in which a woman identified as Susan said she had moved on with her life and wished Manilow well. That report also described her as working in holistic health in California and said she had children from a later relationship. Because the original report came from Star and survives mainly through archived reproductions, those later-life details should be treated as secondary rather than fully established facts.
Still, the larger picture is consistent.
Susan did not chase Hollywood fame.
Did Susan Deixler Remarry?
Reliable mainstream sources do not establish a later marriage.
Some older secondary reporting says she did not remarry, although it also indicates that she later had a family.
Because Susan has remained a private person, her complete relationship history should not be reconstructed from scattered databases or people-search records.
There are many people with similar names.
Connecting an unrelated private person to Barry Manilow would create misinformation.
The safest answer is that no later marriage is strongly documented in authoritative public sources.
Did Susan Become a Holistic Healer?
An older tabloid report described Susan as a holistic healer living in California and working with methods including acupressure.
That claim has since been repeated across many celebrity biography websites.
However, repetition does not make a claim independently verified.
There is limited high-quality documentation of Susan’s professional life after her marriage.
So the careful wording is:
Susan has been reported to have worked in holistic health, but her complete professional history is not strongly documented.
This distinction keeps the biography accurate without pretending that no information exists at all.
Where Does Susan Deixler Live Now?
Susan’s current residence in 2026 is not reliably established.
Older reports placed her in California.
That does not mean she necessarily remains at the same location decades later.
Susan is a private individual, not an active celebrity.
Trying to identify a current address or connect her with unverified people-search records would be both unreliable and unnecessarily invasive.
The most responsible conclusion is that her current life remains largely private.
Is Susan Deixler on Social Media?
There is no major verified public social-media account clearly belonging to Barry Manilow’s former wife.
Accounts using the name Susan Deixler should not automatically be assumed to belong to her.
Her absence from public social media would also fit the broader pattern of her life.
She had decades of opportunity to capitalize on her connection with one of America’s most recognizable singers.
She largely chose not to.
Did Susan and Barry Ever Reconcile?
There is no evidence that they resumed a romantic relationship after their annulment.
However, Manilow’s later comments about Susan have generally been affectionate rather than bitter.
He has described loving her and has accepted responsibility for being unable to make the marriage work.
That does not necessarily mean the former couple maintained a close friendship.
Their private contact over the decades is not well documented.
It simply means Manilow has not rewritten Susan as a mistake or enemy.
Why Did Barry Call Susan the “Perfect Wife”?
The phrase is revealing because it shifts responsibility away from Susan.
When Manilow looked back at the marriage, he did not say he left because she was a bad partner.
He described her as essentially the ideal wife but admitted that his desire for a music career was stronger than his ability to settle into married life at that age.
That perspective also fits his later statement that he could not be a proper husband because he was constantly away making music.
Susan therefore occupies an unusual position in his biography.
She represents a life Manilow might have lived if he had chosen stability over music.
Instead, he chose music.
Did Susan Receive Money From Barry Manilow’s Later Success?
There is no reliable public evidence that Susan received a continuing share of Manilow’s later music earnings.
Their marriage ended before his major commercial success.
No authoritative source documents a large settlement, royalty arrangement, or continuing financial agreement between them.
Claims assigning Susan millions of dollars because she was once married to Manilow are therefore unsupported.
Their short early marriage should not be confused with the later financial world surrounding his successful career.
What Is Susan Deixler’s Net Worth?
Susan Deixler’s individual net worth is not reliably known.
Celebrity biography websites sometimes publish exact estimates, but there is no public financial documentation strong enough to calculate her wealth.
Her later career is only partly documented.
Her assets are private.
Her investments are unknown.
And Barry Manilow’s fortune cannot simply be assigned to a woman whose marriage to him ended before he became famous.
Any exact net-worth figure should therefore be treated as speculation.
How Susan Fits Into Barry Manilow’s Larger Story
Susan represents the earliest romantic chapter of Manilow’s adult life.
She knew him before his famous stage name became associated with huge concerts.
Before Bette Midler.
Before “Mandy.”
Before “Copacabana.”
Before Las Vegas.
Before his long relationship with Garry Kief.
Their marriage lasted only a short time, but Manilow’s later comments suggest that it was emotionally real.
That is what makes Susan more than a trivia answer.
She was part of a possible future that Manilow ultimately walked away from because music was pulling him in another direction.
Why Are People Still Curious About Susan Deixler?
The curiosity increased after Manilow became more open about his personal life.
For decades, many casual fans did not even know he had once been married to a woman.
Then his relationship with Garry Kief became public.
That led people to revisit his first marriage and ask whether it had been genuine.
Manilow answered that question himself.
He said he loved Susan.
That makes their story more nuanced than people might expect.
A young marriage can be genuine and still fail.
A person’s later understanding of sexuality does not automatically make every earlier feeling false.
And two people can separate without needing to turn one another into villains.
Susan Chose a Very Different Life From Barry
Perhaps the most striking part of Susan’s story is the contrast.
Barry Manilow became famous around the world.
His songs played on radio stations for decades.
He performed in massive venues.
He appeared on television.
He became strongly associated with Las Vegas.
Susan moved in almost the opposite direction.
She remained outside celebrity culture.
There were no regular red carpets.
No reality television series.
No memoir attacking her former husband.
No long career selling stories about their marriage.
That decision has also created the mystery surrounding her today.
The less Susan said publicly, the more people wanted to know.
Final Thoughts
Susan Deixler entered Barry Manilow’s life before anyone knew what his future would become.
They met at Eastern District High School in Brooklyn and became teenage sweethearts.
In 1964, they married.
They were young and trying to build an adult life while Barry’s passion for music became increasingly powerful.
The marriage could not survive that conflict.
By around 1965 they had separated, and Susan had the marriage annulled in 1966.
Then their lives went in dramatically different directions.
Barry chased music.
Years of work eventually produced the career he had dreamed about.
Susan disappeared from the entertainment spotlight.
What makes the story especially meaningful is how Manilow discussed it decades later.
He did not say Susan failed him.
He did not dismiss their marriage because he later built a life with a man.
Instead, he said he had genuinely loved her and acknowledged that his obsession with music and his own immaturity prevented him from being the husband she needed.
That leaves Susan in a surprisingly important place in his personal history.
She was his first wife.
His high-school sweetheart.
And someone who knew him before fame transformed almost everything about his life.
Her own later story remains far less public.
Some reports say she raised a family and worked in holistic health, but detailed contemporary information about her is limited.
There is no reliable current net worth.
There is no verified public social-media presence that clearly belongs to her.
And her current private life should not be reconstructed from uncertain online records.
Susan Deixler may always be searched because she once married Barry Manilow.
But the most revealing part of her story may be what happened afterward: while he became famous, she chose a life largely outside fame.
For more carefully researched celebrity biographies and family stories, visit Charles Magazine.
FAQs About Susan Deixler
Who is Susan Deixler?
Susan Deixler is Barry Manilow’s first wife and former high-school sweetheart. They met while attending Eastern District High School in Brooklyn and married in 1964.
How long were Susan Deixler and Barry Manilow married?
Their relationship as a married couple lasted roughly a year. They married in 1964, separated around 1965, and the marriage was formally annulled in 1966.
Why did Barry Manilow leave Susan Deixler?
Manilow has said his overwhelming commitment to music and his own immaturity made him unable to be a proper husband. He spoke warmly about Susan and did not blame her for the marriage ending.
Did Susan Deixler and Barry Manilow have children?
No children are publicly documented from their marriage.
Did Barry Manilow love Susan Deixler?
According to Manilow himself, yes. After publicly discussing his sexuality, he emphasized that he had genuinely been in love with Susan and that their breakup was not simply explained by his sexual orientation.
What happened to Susan Deixler after Barry Manilow?
She largely withdrew from public attention. Older secondary reporting says she later had a family and worked in holistic health, but detailed information about her later life is limited.
What is Susan Deixler’s net worth?
There is no reliable public estimate of Susan’s individual net worth. Exact figures circulating on celebrity websites are not supported by enough verified financial information.
