Iman Shares Secret to 'Lasting Marriage' With David Bowie

Couple were married 24 years when Bowie died in January.

ByABC News
April 20, 2016, 12:34 PM

— -- Iman and David Bowie had been married for 24 years when he died in January, at age 69.

The secret to their "lasting marriage" was timing, Iman said in a recent episode of OWN's "Oprah: Where Are They Now?"

"You have to be at the right time your life that you're ready for an everlasting relationship, that it becomes a first priority in your life," the Somali supermodel, 60, said in the interview taped prior to her husband's death.

"If your career is important to you, don't get married and have children, because something will give," she said.

"I know, as women, we want to be able to have it all. But we can't have it all at the same time," she said. "So, make your priority of what you want at that time. Sometimes you don't even have to get married. Why do you have to get married?"

Iman and Bowie married in 1992 and welcomed daughter Alexandria, or 'Lexi,' in 2000.

Now retired from modeling and running her own cosmetics company, Iman shared a bit about their life at home.

"People say, 'Do you give him fashion tips?' What are you, crazy?" she said with a laugh. "We're talking about David Bowie. He is fashion!"

And while he may have been an icon, Iman didn't treat him that way.

"We both understand the difference between the person and the persona," she said. "When we are home, we are just Iman and David. We're not anybody else."

Bowie died January 10 after battling cancer for more than a year.