Is Cyndi Lauper married? Husband, son, and more about pop icon amid Hollywood Bowl Grammy salute

American singer, songwriter, and actress Cyndi Lauper appeared on a CBS special titled A Grammy Salute to Cyndi Lauper: Live from the Hollywood Bowl, which aired on Sunday night. According to Variety, it was filmed over two nights in late August at the end of her farewell tour.

Lauper joined artists including Cher, SZA, and Joni Mitchell onstage, who paid her live homage. She also spoke of her immigrant family and the “tradition of seamstresses” that ran strong, adding that they inspired her lifelong music.

“If they could do that with cloth, maybe I could do that with music… I was into deconstruction before it was way happening,” she stated.

Lauper was born into an immigrant family, with her father, Fred, having a Swiss-German ethnicity, and her mother, Catrine, being of Italian descent. Later, she married Hollywood actor David Thornton. They have been together since 1991.

The couple has a son named Decyln, who followed in the footsteps of his mother and is now a musician.

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Everything you need to know about Cyndi Lauper’s husband and son

Cyndi Lauper met David Thornton on the sets of the 1991 film, Off and Running. They began dating soon after, and he proposed to her with multiple rings in Los Angeles, according to PEOPLE.

That same year, in November, the couple walked down the aisle at a Friends meeting house in New York. Six years later, in November 1997, their only child, Declyn Wallace Thornton Lauper, was born.

During a 1992 interview with The Independent, Lauper mentioned how “everything changed” for her after meeting Thornton.

“There wasn’t an immediate buzz, but we laughed a lot. And the great thing is that she’s not a bit starry, so the first thing that happened was that a real friendship began to develop,” she noted.

In another interview with Vanity Fair, the two-time Grammy winner gave a shoutout to her husband for being her biggest support.

“My husband became the strong arm of the family. He was very much there. He’s so wildly talented; he understands stories so well,” Cyndi Lauper stated.

David Thorton was born in June 1953 in Cheraw, South Carolina. His father, Robert Donald Thorton, was an English professor at Harvard University. David’s mother was Grace Ellen Baker.

He graduated from Hamilton College, followed by Yale Drama School, and studied acting at Lee Strasberg’s Actors Studio. According to COMINGSOON.NET, David Thornton made his acting debut in the TV movie, Sessions.

Since then, he has appeared in several television projects, including Miami Vice, Tales from the Darkside, Crime Story, and Law & Order. Thornton’s filmography includes John Q, Home Alone 3, The Other Woman, and The Notebook. His latest project, Transfer at Aachen, has been in pre-production since April 2025.

In October 2024, Cyndi Lauper told PEOPLE that like every marriage, theirs had “highs and lows.”

"But sometimes the things you think are important when you’re young just aren’t important… Your partner is the best friend you’ll ever have, that you’ll spend the most time with. So, you have to talk to them, share stuff."

The pop icon also mentioned that her husband loves art and music, but his taste is different than hers. David was more into electronic dance music, while their son, Declyn, preferred Green Day.

Declyn, who now goes by Dex Lauper, is an underground musician. According to Vanity Fair, he is on SoundCloud and was described as a “terrific artist” by his mother. Dex, who has 1.8 million Instagram followers, has released multiple songs and teamed up with the likes of G-Eazy.

Both Declyn and his father appeared on the 2013 reality series, Cyndi Lauper: Still So Unusual. Over the years, Dex has accompanied his mother to red carpets, including The Celebrity Apprentice season 3 afterparty in May 2010, the 2011 Grammy Awards, the Broadway opening night of Kinky Boots, the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards, and the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival, where Cyndi’s documentary, Let the Canary Sing, premiered.

Speaking to The Guardian in 2013, the singer-actress noted it was “hard” for Dex to have grown up in the limelight as he felt the “pressure of being my son.” In the same interview, Lauper praised Thornton for being a good father but expressed regret for missing out on “a few things when I was on the road.”

“People said I was so career-driven, but once the kid came, I looked at how I can support everything: make a record, tour—and my husband would say, ‘Go to Europe, I’ve got him.’ I took my son on tour sometimes, but he needed his own space,” she explained.

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During the recent Grammy Salute to Cyndi Lauper, Cher, SZA, and Joni Mitchell performed Lauper’s popular tracks, including True Colors and Girls Just Want to Have Fun. Mickey Guyton sang Lauper’s famous song, Who Let It Rain, followed by John Legend’s rendition of Cyndi Lauper’s Time After Time. Angélique Kidjo and Trombone Shorty performed a duet of the pop icon’s 1986 hit, Iko Iko.

Jake Wesley Rogers also delivered a tribute to Cyndi Lauper by singing one of her all-time hit songs, Money Changes Everything. Meanwhile, Brandi Carlile and Billie Eilish paid their tributes in short videos. Cyndi, herself, sang Sally’s Pigeons and turned her song 21 Years into 52 Years.

The CBS special was executive produced by Grammys veteran Ken Ehrlich, Recording Academy head Harvey Mason Jr., and Lauper.