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Cyndi Lauper once famously sang, “What’s good enough for you is good enough for me.” And for more than three decades, what’s been good enough for the “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” legend is the unwavering love she’s shared with her husband, David Thornton. The couple met on the set of the 1991 film Off and Running, married later that year, and have been together ever since — celebrating over 30 years of marriage and raising their son, Declyn Wallace Thornton Lauper, along the way.
Recently, Cyndi celebrated one of the biggest moments of her career — her 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction— and David was right there by her side to cheer her on. The longtime couple walked the red carpet together at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, where Cyndi delivered a show-stopping performance alongside Avril Lavigne, Salt-N-Pepa, and RAYE.
While Cyndi’s songs have always celebrated independence, individuality, and self-expression, her lasting marriage proves that love and creative freedom can coexist beautifully. Here’s everything to know about her husband David below.
Cyndi Lauper’s Husband Is David Thornton
Since 1991, Cyndi Lauper has been married to David Thornton. David is an actor who was born in South Carolina on June 12, 1953, according to his IMDB profile. He’s best known for his roles in Home Alone 3, John Q, and Here and There. He was born ten days before Cyndi was born, as if he were fated to wind up her dearly beloved.
Over the years, David has continued acting in both TV and film. His recent projects include the 2023 thriller God Is a Bullet, directed by Nick Cassavetes and starring Jamie Foxx, as well as previous roles in Darcy (2020) and Homeland (2017), where he played George Pallis.
He Met Cyndi In 1991
Cyndi and David Thorton met on the set of the 1991 film Off and Running. Cyndi starred in the comedy-mystery, but as she told The Independent in 1992, the film came at a low point in her life. “I’d been having a terrible time,” she said. “I’d split with Dave Wolff – who used to be my manager as well as my boyfriend – after six and a half years. I’d moved out of the place we shared and was living in a hotel room.”
Cyndi said she “got really depressed” and had found herself in a “no-win masochistic situation with this man who wasn’t particularly good-looking.” After it ended, she felt “ugly, dull and a mess. I was convinced I was through as an artist.” She took the role in Off and Running as “a vacation from myself, a way to get lost in work and forget who I was. Then I met David, and everything changed.”
David was “really shy with me during rehearsals,” said Cyndi. David told The Independent that he and Cyndi “didn’t communicate much on set at first. I was worried that if we became friendly and liked each other, it might affect the scenes we do together, which are fairly angry and violent.” One evening, Cyndi invited David to dinner with her and her assistant. “There wasn’t an immediate buzz, but we laughed a lot,” he said. “And the great thing is that she’s not a bit starry, so the first thing that happened was a real friendship began to develop.
“I began to send him teasing notes – it’s what I do when I kinda like someone. I wrote that he was a wimp because he didn’t do as many press-ups as me. At night, we used to walk on the beach after dinner. The moon was always out on the water, and one night I said: ‘I wish I was a kite flying over the waves,’ and he said: ‘Why not be a wave?’ I thought, ‘Oh my God, this man is a poet.’”
They Married After A Short Courtship
The couple kept it professional while working together. After the film wrapped, they fell into marriage. “Two weeks after we’d really gotten together, he was talking about marriage. I mean, marriage,” Lauper told The Independent. She said she consulted her “make-up lady” for advice, and her beautician noted that she married her husband after two weeks and never regretted it. “When the film was finished, we spent a month alone together at Cape Cod. We could stand each other, so we decided to go ahead and marry,” said Cyndi. The couple married in November 1991 and have been together ever since.
“I proposed to her in Los Angeles, and I had several rings I thought would be right for her,” David told The Independent. “One was an 1840s crystal which had belonged to a Hindu princess. Cyndi believes in reincarnation and the past, so I thought that might be right. There was an antique Roman ring with the stamp of Eros and finally an English regard ring with a curve of different gems across the finger. That was the one she chose. She made me go on one knee before she would accept me.”
Cyndi & David Welcomed A Child In 1997
Though Cyndi and David tied the knot after dating for a few weeks, they took their time before starting a family. In 1997, they had a son named Declyn “Dex” Thornton. Cyndi remembered a time when her son gave her grief for cursing on live tv. “He said, ‘What Dad always says that if you don’t curse when it’s not important, you won’t curse when it is,’” Cyndi explained to Closer Weekly in 2018. “And I was thinking, “F–k yeah.’ No, I’m kidding, no, no, I’m thinking, ‘I know, Dex. I know, it was a long day, you know.’ It’s hard to be me.”
Cyndi’s family was featured on her short-lived WeTV show.
They’ve Worked Hard On Their Marriage
“All I can say is that he is my best friend, he’s wildly creative, and I just wanted to share my whole life with him,” Cyndi told Closer Weekly. “I heard George Harrison‘s wife say once that the secret [to marriage] is to stay married and work it out.”
Months after they married, Cyndi and David got blunt and honest about each other. “Sure, there are things I don’t like about David,” she told The Independent. “Number one, he doesn’t like TV and always shuts it off. And two, he likes to debate. I come from a Sicilian family, and we yell all the time. … With David, we’ll be talking, and he’ll suddenly say: ‘I’m getting angry . . .’ That means we’re going to have a debate. But those are just little things.”
“Like any newly married couple, we’re having to learn about each other,” added David. “One of the things I love about Cyndi being so expressive is that it makes me more comfortable about being emotionally demonstrative. But she’s also volatile and temperamental, and I’m not so comfortable with that. When I hear the decibels going up, I usually say: ‘I don’t want to play that game.’ I fear getting into a rage because I’m a slow burner, but when I get angry, there’s a real white heat.”
However, they’ve learned to cool things off and make their marriage thrive. It’s been going strong for three decades with no signs of slowing down. Seems it’s good enough, after all.
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