Bob Dylan's 6 Children: All About His Sons and Daughters

Bob Dylan is a father to six kids: Maria, Jesse, Anna, Sam, Jakob and Desiree

During his long and Grammy Award-winning career, Bob Dylan welcomed six children.

The "Hurricane" singer shares five kids — Maria, Jesse, Anna, Sam and Jakob — with his ex-wife Sara Lownds and one daughter, Desiree, with his ex-wife Carolyn Dennis.

He first became a father after marrying Sara in 1965 and adopting her daughter, Maria. The couple then welcomed four children before splitting in 1977. The “Mr. Tambourine Man” singer quietly married his backup singer Carolyn in 1986, four months after they had a daughter, Desiree. Though the pair split in 1992, the former couple kept their marriage and daughter private until 2001.

“Bob and I made a choice to keep our marriage a private matter for a simple reason — to give our daughter a normal childhood," Carolyn said in a statement, per ABC News. "Bob has been a wonderful, active father to Desiree,” she added.

Related: Bob Dylan's Life in Photos

Bob wrote about fatherhood in his 2004 memoir, Chronicles: Volume One, saying family was one of the most important aspects of his life. “Having children changed my life and segregated me from just about everybody and everything that was going on," he wrote. "Outside of my family, nothing held any real interest for me."

In 2005, Bob's youngest son Jakob spoke to The New York Times about the active role the legendary musician played in his youth. “When I was a kid, he was a god to me for all the right reasons,” he recalled. “He never missed a single Little League game I had. He’s collected every home run ball I ever hit. And he’s still affectionate to me.”

Jakob’s older brother, Jesse, painted a similar picture of their father to U.K.'s The Times many years later, in 2021. “My dad’s great, he’s a totally kind, wonderful man,” he said. “He’s been nothing but supportive to me and my brothers and sisters.”

Here's everything to know about Bob Dylan's six kids.

Maria Dylan Himmelman, 62

Sara and her first husband, Hans Lownds, welcomed their daughter Maria on Oct. 21, 1961, and Bob adopted Maria when he married Sara in 1965.

Bob's eldest is a writer who focuses on poetry. Her work has been published in Plume, the New Ohio Review, Image Journal, Grist and DIAGRAM, among others.

In August 1988, Maria married musician Peter Himmelman and the couple share four children. Maria's husband told Aish.com that the pair were introduced by Bob and Himmelman’s mutual friend, writer Louie Kemp.

In 2014, Himmelman told Tablet Magazine that Maria is extremely private and has largely avoided the spotlight. “A few things differentiate her from anyone I’ve ever met,” he said of his spouse. “She has absolutely no desire [whatsoever] to be in the public eye. In almost 26 years, she never said one word, to anyone, on the record.”

Himmelman told Cleveland.com that he and Maria moved their family to New York from Santa Monica, California, in the summer of 2019.

Jesse Byron Dylan, 58

Bob and his first wife Sara welcomed their son Jesse Byron Dylan in New York City on Jan. 6, 1966.

Following Jesse's birth, Bob took a break from music, according to The Times, sheltering Jesse from his father’s fame. “It was a gradual sort of realization [that he was famous] because he’s very normal,” Jesse told the publication. “None of that came home with him.”

At the age of 9, he joined Bob on the road for his Rolling Thunder Revue tour. “He seemed kinda fun,” Jesse recalled of his dad during this time.

Bob's eldest son studied film at New York University, and after graduation, he began directing music videos for artists like Tom Petty, Elvis Costello and The Wallflowers, his younger brother Jakob’s band. Jesse also directed the Emmy Award-winning music video for will.i.am’s “Yes We Can."

Jesse has worked on commercials for brands like Nike, Motorola, Snickers and Nintendo; he has also directed feature films, such as American Wedding (2003) and Kicking and Screaming (2005) with Will Ferrell.

In 2019, the filmmaker released Soros, a documentary focused on businessman and philanthropist George Soros.

He is also the founder and CEO of Wondros, a creative agency that aims to solve “complex communications challenges," and works with Netflix and Vogue, among others.

Jesse and the actress Susan Traylor have two children: son Pablo Dylan, who was born around 1996, and daughter Feury Mae Beatrice Dylan, born in 2000. In 2019, Pablo was featured in Rolling Stone for his own budding music career.

Anna Dylan, 57

Bob and Sara's daughter Anna Dylan was born on July 11, 1967. Like her older sister Maria, she has not led a life in the public eye and hasn't spoken about her father.

Sam Dylan, 56

Born on July 30, 1968, Sam Dylan is Bob and Sara's fourth child.

Sam’s wife, Stacy Dylan, revealed in a 2022 Instagram post that she met her husband while attending Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, around 1988. Although she admitted it's "hard to get him on" social media, Stacy regularly shares photos with her husband on Instagram.

The couple share two children, Jonah and Lowell. Their younger son was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease when he was a child and his experience inspired Stacy to create her nonprofit, Connecting to Cure Crohn’s and Colitis.

According to the Jewish Journal, Sam’s brother Jakob has performed at the organization’s fundraising events.

Jakob Luke Dylan, 53

Bob and Sara's son Jakob Luke Dylan was born in New York City on Dec. 9, 1969. By the age of 3, he had moved to Los Angeles with his parents and siblings.

“I know people have this image of how rough it is growing up in a famous family,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 2000. “But it really didn’t seem that big a deal at the time. I had friends. I had a home. I had a family.”

After growing up, returning to N.Y.C. and dropping out of Parsons School of Design, he decided to focus on his passion: music. "In the back of my mind, I always knew I was going to end up gravitating to songwriting,” he told The Washington Post in 1997.

The singer played in several bands, including The Bootheels, before developing his musical chops with The Wallflowers. The group released its self-titled debut album in 1992, but it hit the big time with its 1996 release, Bringing Down the Horse, which featured the singles “The Difference" and “One Headlight.”

The band won two Grammy Awards for “One Headlight” at the same ceremony where Jakob's dad gave a rousing live performance. "I'm proud of his accomplishments," Bob told USA Today of his son in 1997. "He's still young, and he's come a long way in a short time.”

The folk singer also admitted he had some concerns about Jakob's choice to follow him into the music industry. “I worried about him when he started out,” Bob said. “I just didn't want to see him get roughed up. This business can throw you into deep water."

In 1997, Jakob, who was once named PEOPLE’s Sexiest Rock Star, performed with his dad for the first time at a private event in California. "People act like it was a big deal, as if there was this big unsaid rift between us that we would never play together,” Jakob told The Washington Post. “The truth was we'd never been asked to play together."

The Wallflowers released Exit Wounds, its first album in nearly a decade, in 2021. “[The Wallflowers are] always going to be my thing and I’ll always be the center of it,” Jakob told USA Today at the time. “Each time I go back, some people will make sense for it and some won’t. It’s a continuing evolution."

Like his father, Jakob also has a large family — he shares four sons with Paige Dylan, whom he married in 1992. “I’m a father, so it’s in all my songs,” he told The Washington Post in 2021. “My songs encompass whoever I am. I’ve been a father for a long time, so that’s in my mind.”

Desiree Gabrielle Dennis-Dylan, 38

Bob’s youngest child, Desiree Gabrielle “Desi” Dennis-Dylan, was born on Jan. 31, 1986 — 16 years after Jakob. Her mother is Bob’s former backup singer, Carolyn.

Though the pair ultimately divorced in 1992, they kept their relationship and daughter private until she was a teenager. Desi’s identity was revealed in 2001 when biographer Howard Sounes released Down the Highway, which mentioned Bob’s youngest child and his second marriage.

Carolyn disputed claims from the book that Bob had neglected or shunned Desi. “To portray Bob as 'hiding his daughter' is just malicious and ridiculous,” she said in a statement, per ABC News. “That is something he would never do."

Like her father, Desi has a love for performing. According to the Groundlings Theatre, she has shared the stage with the likes of Chaka Khan and Dick Van Dyke. She’s also an actress and has had roles on Modern Family, Good Girls and NCIS, among others.

In 2004, Desi began performing with the Young Americans, a nonprofit touring performing arts club.

In recent years, Desi has made public tributes to Bob on Instagram for Father’s Day and his birthday.

"He’s my favorite writer, one of my favorite storytellers (he and my mom are tied for first place ??), my favorite person to make laugh, one of the most brilliant yet most humble men I’ve ever known and this world is quite lucky to have him," she wrote on Bob's 80th birthday in 2021.

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