Who Is Barry Manilow’s Husband? All About Garry Kief

Barry Manilow married his longtime love, Garry Kief, in April 2014 after being together since 1978.

Manilow, whose career began in the early 1960s, has largely kept his relationship with Kief out of the spotlight, with the singer only publicly coming out as gay in 2017.

“I thought if they knew I was gay, I would let them down,” he told PEOPLE of his fans. “So I never did anything. When they found out Garry and I were together, they were so happy. The reaction was so beautiful — strangers commented, ‘Great for you!’ I’m so grateful for that.”

Here’s everything you need to know about Barry Manilow’s husband, Garry Kief.

He and Manilow met in 1978

Manilow and Kief met back in 1978, and Manilow later revealed that he felt Kief instantly. “I knew this was it,” he said on his PEOPLE cover story in 2017. “I was one of the lucky ones. I was pretty lonely before that. … Garry didn’t know what I was doing, even though I had all these records. He was the guy, and I was the guy, so we could just treat each other like two normal people, not like a superstar and a person.”

He and Manilow were married in April 2014

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Manilow and Kief quietly tied the knot at their home in Palm Springs, California in April 2014, but the news wasn’t announced until a year later.

“It was a surprise,” a friend of the couple told PEOPLE of their wedding at the time. The couple invited “20 to 30 guests” who believed they were meeting the couple for lunch.

“He’s at a point now where his career and personal life is in a great place and he really doesn’t care what people think,” the friend said of Manilow. – He is in love and happy.

Manilow later opened up about the wedding in his PEOPLE cover story in 2017. “I didn’t think it would be this emotional,” he said. “It was deeper than we thought it would be, looking at each other, saying ‘I love you’ in front of people.”

He is also Manilow’s longtime manager

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Manilow and Kief also have a professional relationship: Kief is the singer’s longtime manager. He took on the role shortly after the pair were introduced. In 2017, Manilow told PEOPLE, “He’s the smartest person I’ve ever met — and he’s also a great guy.”

The couple’s friend and neighbor Suzanne Somers told PEOPLE in 2017 that Manilow and Kief’s professional relationship works because they absolutely trust each other.

“There’s Barry Manilow the performer, and there’s Barry’s ‘machine,'” she said. “It takes a huge amount of brains and knowledge to book and sell complicated arena tours, choreograph a promo, direct a whole team and make it look easy, and that part is Garry’s domain. It takes two to have a great career. There is a huge comfort and trust between them .”

During the performance at Who is talking to Chris Wallace? in November 2023, Manilow credited Keif for keeping him out of trouble at the height of his career.

“Garry saved my life. As my career exploded, it was just crazy. And, you know, coming back to an empty hotel room, you can get into a lot of trouble if you’re alone night after night,” he said. “But I met Garry just as it blew up. And I didn’t have to go back to those empty hotel rooms. I had someone to cry or celebrate with.”

Manilow added: “It was pretty lonely until I met Garry. And then it was fun.”

He has a number of other celebrity clients

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Manilow isn’t Kief’s only high-profile client. As president and CEO of Stiletto Entertainment, Kief worked with jazz singer Matt Dusko and actress Lorna Luft, who is the daughter of Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli’s half-sister.

Kief is also a trustee of the Judy Garland Heirs Trust, according to Deadline.

Fans accepted his relationship with Manilow

In 2017, Manilow told PEOPLE that he hadn’t been out publicly in decades in part because he wasn’t sure how his fans would take the news — but they celebrated the singer’s relationship.

After announcing that they were married, Manilow and Kief were embraced by the singer’s longtime fans. “The fans and the public were so supportive. I thought, ‘Oh man, I’m going to get a lot of negative stuff.’ Not one negative letter, comment — anywhere,” Manilow told PEOPLE a month after his cover story went viral. “These people, these strangers — they care about me. Isn’t it strange? I’m just a musician who sings. And these people care about my happiness — and that’s what happens. It was a wonderful, wonderful experience.”

He and Manilow live in Palm Springs

Manilow and Kief held the wedding at their 53-acre home in Palm Springs, California. Manilow told PEOPLE why they chose the city, where he’s lived since the ’70s, as his home base.

“The reason I chose Palm Springs: My life is so filled with noise — the big noise and noise of airports and streets, going in and out of concert halls, music and applause,” he said. “I needed to be able to come home to a place where it’s peaceful. It’s peaceful here. It’s the absolute opposite of what my 45-year career has been.”

He has one daughter

When Kief and Manilow met, the talent manager’s daughter, Kirsten, was just one year old.

“Garry and I have been together for 40 years and we’ve raised a daughter,” Manilow revealed during an interview with writer Michael Cavacini in 2017. “She turned out to be a great, beautiful girl… Our relationship and my being gay — I’ve always been a proud gay man. I was always very proud of Garry and me.”

In 2023, Manilow revealed that he and Keif had recently become grandparents when Kirsten adopted her first child.

“I never, ever thought about having a child or having anything to do with it [being] father or anything,” the “Could It Be Magic” singer told PEOPLE. “I’m watching this little girl—she’s 2½ years old—growing up and learning. This is a completely new experience for me and I’m really enjoying it.”

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