In April 2014, singer-songwriter Paul Simon and his wife Edie Brickell appeared in court after they were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct. While they held hands before the judge and blamed the charges on a “rare argument,” a new biography, Homeward Bound: The Life of Paul Simon by Peter Ames Carlin, gives more detail into their fierce fight.
According to the book, Simon dialed 911 during their argument before hanging up without saying a word. When the police arrived, Brickell told them that Simon “had done something to ‘break [her] heart,’ ” writes Carlin. “She had had a few drinks, and things went south from there: some pushing and slapping (her hand, his cheek), and so on.”
When the couple arrived at court, Carlin writes that they “hoped to convince the judge that they truly did not pose potential harm to each other and thus did not need or want a protective order keeping each safe from the other.”
Simon, 74, and Brickell, 50, have been married since 1992 and have three children together. After the court appearance, they attended their son’s Little League baseball game. If that wasn’t enough to prove their reconciliation, the couple released a duet together just days after their arrest. The judge later dropped the charges.
“I got my feelings hurt and I picked a fight with my husband,” Brickell said. “The police called it disorderly. Thank God it’s orderly now.”
