Barbra Streisand’s Heartbreaking Final Goodbye to Robert Redford: “I Love You Too”

 

“I Love You Too”: Barbra Streisand’s Heartbreaking Final Goodbye to Robert Redford

Some friendships become part of a person’s life so deeply that even decades cannot erase the smallest details: a nickname, a private joke, a familiar voice on the other end of the phone.

For Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford, that kind of friendship lasted for generations.

Their relationship began on screen with one of Hollywood’s most memorable romantic dramas, The Way We Were. But behind the cameras, their connection developed into something that went far beyond a famous film partnership. They became longtime friends, confidants and, in their own very distinctive way, sources of affection and humor for each other.

When Redford died in September 2025 at the age of 89, Streisand lost not only a legendary acting partner but someone whose presence had been woven into her life for decades.

Months later, during the 2026 Academy Awards, Streisand stood before an audience filled with Hollywood’s biggest names to remember him.

Wearing a black gown, she appeared during the ceremony’s In Memoriam tribute and spoke about the man she had known for so many years. Her words were emotional, personal and filled with the kind of warmth that can only come from a friendship that has survived the passing of time.

And among the memories she shared was one tiny detail that captured their relationship perfectly.

Redford called her “Babs.”

It was a nickname that might have sounded ordinary coming from anyone else. But from him, Streisand said, it always made her laugh.

“I miss him now more than ever, even how he loved teasing me,” she recalled. “He’d call me, ‘Babs.’”

Streisand remembered joking with him about the nickname.

“And I’d say, ‘Bob, you know, do I look like a Babs?’”

But she understood that the teasing was part of their bond.

“The way he said it made me laugh,” she explained.

Years after they first worked together, after careers that stretched across generations and countless changes in Hollywood, that familiar nickname would become something even more meaningful.

It would appear in the final note Streisand ever wrote to him.

A Friendship That Began With The Way We Were

To understand why Streisand’s tribute carried so much emotional weight, it helps to look back at where her relationship with Redford began.

In 1973, the two stars appeared together in The Way We Were, directed by Sydney Pollack. Streisand played Katie Morosky, a politically passionate and idealistic woman whose life becomes intertwined with Hubbell Gardiner, a talented but more conventional writer played by Redford.

The film explored love, politics, ambition, memory and the painful reality that two people can deeply care for one another while still being unable to build the same kind of life.

Their chemistry became one of the defining elements of the movie.

Streisand was already a major star, known for her extraordinary singing voice and her success as an actress. Redford, meanwhile, had established himself as one of Hollywood’s leading actors and was increasingly becoming an emblem of the movie-star era.

Together, they created a pairing that audiences remembered long after the credits rolled.

The film itself became a cultural touchstone.

Its title song, written by Marvin Hamlisch with lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman and performed by Streisand, became one of the most recognizable songs in American popular culture.

At the 1974 Academy Awards, the film received multiple nominations, and Streisand won the Oscar for Best Original Song for “The Way We Were.”

But the significance of the film did not end with awards.

For Streisand and Redford, it became the foundation of a friendship that lasted for more than five decades.

Their relationship would continue long after the movie was finished.

They did not need to be constantly working together to remain connected. Their friendship existed outside the Hollywood spotlight, sustained by conversations, memories and mutual affection.

That makes Streisand’s recollection of their final conversations especially poignant.

“Babs, I Love You Dearly”

During her Academy Awards tribute, Streisand described one of the final conversations she had with Redford.

It was not a dramatic Hollywood moment.

There was no red carpet, no camera crew and no audience.

It was simply a phone call between two longtime friends.

They talked about the kinds of things they had apparently discussed many times over the years: politics, art and Modigliani, the Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, whom they both admired.

The conversation eventually came to an end.

Then Redford said something that Streisand would never forget.

“Babs, I love you dearly, and I always will.”

Those words became one of the most important memories Streisand carried with her after his death.

She told the Academy Awards audience that she responded simply.

“I love you too.”

Then she signed the final note she ever wrote to him:

“Babs.”

It is a remarkably small gesture.

Just a nickname.

Just a signature.

But within the context of their friendship, it became a final expression of affection.

For decades, Redford had called her “Babs” while teasing her about the name. Eventually, she embraced the nickname so completely that it became the signature on her final message to him.

There is something especially moving about that symmetry.

He called her Babs.

She laughed.

She teased him back.

And in the end, she signed her last note to him with the very name he had made part of their private language.

Remembering Robert Redford

Redford's death marked the end of an extraordinary chapter in American cinema.

Across a career spanning many decades, he became known not only as an actor but also as a director, producer, environmental advocate and founder of the Sundance Film Festival and Sundance Institute.

His screen career included some of the most celebrated films of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

He appeared in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, All the President’s Men, Three Days of the Condor, The Natural and numerous other films.

But Redford's influence on filmmaking extended beyond acting.

As a director, he earned an Academy Award for Ordinary People, his 1980 directorial debut. The film won Best Picture, while Redford received the Oscar for Best Director.

He also became closely associated with Sundance, helping create an institution that played a major role in supporting independent filmmakers and bringing independent cinema into the American cultural mainstream.

For many people, Redford represented a particular kind of Hollywood stardom: charismatic without appearing overly manufactured, successful while maintaining a strong interest in filmmaking outside the traditional studio system.

Streisand’s description of him reflected that complexity.

She remembered him as “thoughtful and bold” and described him as “an intellectual cowboy who blazed his own trail.”

It was a fitting description of someone whose career repeatedly moved between mainstream Hollywood and independent filmmaking.

Yet Streisand’s tribute was not primarily about his résumé.

It was about the person she knew.

The friend who teased her.

The man who called her Babs.

The person who could spend hours talking with her about politics, art and Modigliani.

And the friend who ended one of their final conversations by telling her that he loved her and always would.

The Power of a Private Nickname

Nicknames can seem insignificant to outsiders.

For two people who share a long history, however, a nickname can carry decades of memories.

“Babs” was not simply another name for Streisand.

It became a symbol of the familiarity between her and Redford.

Publicly, she was Barbra Streisand — one of the most recognizable entertainers in the world.

To Redford, she was Babs.

That distinction matters.

It suggests a relationship in which the enormous public personas of two Hollywood legends could temporarily disappear. Instead of Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford, there were simply two old friends talking on the phone.

That may be one reason her recollection resonated so strongly.

The emotional center of the story is not fame.

It is familiarity.

It is the way someone you have known for decades can make you laugh with a single word.

It is the way an old joke can survive even as everything else changes.

And it is the way a seemingly ordinary phrase can become priceless after someone is gone.

Returning to the Song

At the end of her tribute, Streisand performed “The Way We Were.”

The choice was impossible to separate from her history with Redford.

The song had become inseparable from the film that first brought them together on screen.

Its lyrics explore memory, nostalgia and the complicated ways people remember relationships after they have ended.

That made the performance especially appropriate for an In Memoriam tribute.

Streisand was not simply singing one of her most famous songs.

She was returning to the beginning of a friendship.

More than five decades earlier, she and Redford had stood together at the center of a story about two people trying to understand love, memory and the lives they had chosen.

Decades later, she was standing alone on another stage, singing that same song in memory of the person who had shared that unforgettable chapter with her.

The emotional connection between the two moments was impossible to miss.

The young stars of The Way We Were had become two veteran figures whose careers had shaped American cinema and popular culture.

And now only one of them remained to tell the story.

More Than a Hollywood Partnership

It would be easy to describe Streisand and Redford simply as famous co-stars.

Their history was more complicated than that.

Hollywood has produced countless screen pairings, but very few continue to carry emotional significance half a century later.

The longevity of their friendship suggests that their connection was not dependent solely on the success of The Way We Were.

They continued to speak.

They continued to joke.

They continued to discuss art and politics.

And they maintained a personal connection long after their original collaboration had become part of film history.

That is perhaps the most touching part of Streisand's remembrance.

She did not focus on box-office numbers, awards or career milestones.

Instead, she remembered the sound of his voice.

She remembered the nickname.

She remembered what they talked about.

And above all, she remembered what he said before they ended one of their final conversations.

“Babs, I love you dearly, and I always will.”

For anyone who has ever lost a longtime friend, those words may feel especially familiar.

The final conversation with someone we love rarely feels like a final conversation while it is happening.

Most of the time, it is simply another phone call.

Another conversation.

Another goodbye.

We assume there will be another one.

Another story.

Another joke.

Another opportunity to say what we mean.

That is what makes Streisand's memory so powerful. She had the chance to hear Redford express his love for her one final time.

And she answered him.

“I love you too.”

A Final Signature

Then came the final note.

She signed it “Babs.”

In a life filled with extraordinary moments, it was an extraordinarily simple ending.

But perhaps that is precisely why it matters.

The public knew Barbra Streisand as an Oscar-winning actress, singer, filmmaker and cultural icon.

Robert Redford was known around the world as an actor, director and Hollywood legend.

But friendship exists on a different scale.

It is built from private jokes and familiar names.

It lives in phone calls that nobody else hears.

It survives in memories that may never make the newspapers.

And sometimes, it is captured in one small signature.

“Babs.”

A nickname that began as teasing became a final tribute.

A name Redford had used for years became the name Streisand chose to sign when she wrote to him for the last time.

There is something quietly beautiful about that.

It suggests that even after decades, the relationship remained recognizably theirs.

The world knew Barbra Streisand.

Robert Redford knew Babs.

And when she said goodbye, she chose to be Babs one last time.

A Friendship That Outlived the Screen

The story of Streisand and Redford ultimately goes beyond one film, one song or one awards-show tribute.

It is a story about the endurance of friendship.

Their careers took them in different directions. They experienced changing eras of Hollywood, different professional challenges and the passage of an extraordinary amount of time.

Yet the friendship remained.

That is why Streisand's appearance at the Academy Awards felt like more than a traditional celebrity tribute.

She was not simply honoring a fellow actor.

She was remembering a friend.

Someone who had known her for decades.

Someone who could tease her.

Someone with whom she could discuss art and politics.

Someone who could call her by a nickname that made her laugh.

And someone who, during one of their final conversations, made sure she knew how much he loved her.

Her response was equally simple.

She loved him too.

And when she wrote her final note, she signed it with the name he had given her.

“Babs.”

For Robert Redford, it was a nickname.

For Barbra Streisand, it became a final piece of their shared language.

And for everyone who watched her remember him, it became a reminder that behind the legends, awards and movie posters are human relationships that can mean far more than fame.

Some friendships become part of history.

Others become part of the heart.

The friendship between Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford managed to become both.

And after more than five decades, it ended not with a grand Hollywood farewell, but with a few simple words between two old friends:

“I love you dearly.”

“I love you too.”

And finally, one last signature:

“Babs.”