Liv Tyler has reflected on the moment she learned her birth father was Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler.
Speaking on Kate and Oliver Hudson’s Sibling Revelry podcast, the 47-year-old said she was only “11 or 12” at the time.
Up until that moment, Liv believed that musician Todd Rundgren, whom her mother dated between 1972 and 1978, was her father.
It wasn’t until her mother, Bebe Buell, brought her to an Aerosmith concert that the truth was revealed. She said she knew something was off when her mother started crying.
“I looked at my mom, and I was like, ‘Mom?’ And she just started crying. My mom just, like, balled. And I was like, ‘Is Steven my dad?’ And she just burst [into tears]," Liv recalled. “And then she took me to a bench and we sat on a bench at this outdoor amphitheater and she told me the whole story in the most sincere, beautiful way.”
She continued: “The first wave was shock. After that concert, we went home and my mom had a chaise lounge in front of a window. I remember sitting there for what felt like three days, but it was probably three hours, and coming to this conclusion of ‘Whoa, I have two dads and all this love.’”
When asked how Rundgren felt about the situation, Liv said he always knew they weren’t related to one another, but that it still must have been very difficult for him.
“It’s probably still very hard and painful and I don’t speak to him enough,” she said. “I love him and I have brothers from him and I had a whole family with them, but I was a kid, so it was really hard because he was mad at my mom, and then suddenly Steven was there, and we did a paternity test, and it was positive.”
Steven and Buell had a fling in 1976. However, by the time she gave birth to Liv, Buell was in a long-term relationship with Rundgren.
Buell went on to marry Coyote Shivers in 1992 and then Jim Wallerstein in 2002. Though she settled down with both Shivers and Wallerstein, the former model dated several musicians over the years, including Mick Jagger and David Bowie.
Steven, on the other hand, tied the knot with Cyrinda Foxe in 1978. The two stayed together for nine years before parting ways in 1987.
About a year later, Steven married Teresa Barrick. However, their marriage ended after eight years.
The “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” artist’s eldest child is Liv. He welcomed his second daughter, Mia Abagale Tyler, 46, with Foxe. He shares Chelsea Anna Tyler, 36, and Taj Monroe Tallarico, 34, with Barrick.
In the podcast interview, Liv said she encountered Mia for the first time backstage at the concert.
“We went backstage after the show and then there was Mia. We met for the first time, and I remember someone asking if we were sisters, but we didn’t know,” she told the hosts.
