THE THIN WHITE DUKE FINALLY TOOK HIMSELF a duchess. Or did he? On April 24, British rock superstar David Bowie, 45, and majestic Somalian model turned actress Iman, 36, slipped into city hall in Lausanne, Switzerland, where Bowie has a home in the nearby hills. Something went on between the couple and the bureaucrats, but when it was all over, were they truly husband and wife?
Bowie's publicist Alan Edwards dismissed the ceremony as "just a civil thing that needs to be done...before you can actually get married in a church wedding—because David is a Lausanne resident and Iman's not, and he's Christian and she's not." (Iman is Muslim.)
Perhaps, but they appeared dressed for more important business. Iman wore a cream-colored pantsuit, pearls and shades—perhaps to camouflage the cover-girl face that once earned thousands of dollars a day—and remained as calm as a spring breeze. Her normally cool mate, clad in black with a single white rose in his lapel, seemed close to tears. "He was incredibly moved. I could see the emotion coming through," reported Michel Perret, the registrar who officiated. "He kept saying how happy he was."
Yet in 1990, when the elegant couple first showed up together, lanky arm in lanky arm, tout le monde suspected a publicity stunt. Fans remained skeptical even after Bowie popped the question last November in Paris. And why not? In 1989 he had been briefly engaged to dancer Melissa Hurley. Moreover, he and Iman had both endured complicated divorces (she in 1987 from basketball star Spencer Haywood, father of her daughter Zulekha, 13; Bowie in 1980 from actress Angela Barnett, who gave him a son, Zowie, 20, now known as Joey). Whatever song the couple is singing, the second stanza is set for this summer. No location has been decided yet for the church ceremony, but Iman, daughter of a Somali diplomat, told PEOPLE earlier this spring, "It will be a small, traditional, outdoor wedding—just family." As for expanding the Bowie brood, she added, "If God is willing, yes. Meanwhile, I'm happy with my life. Everything is going the way I wanted it to."
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