“ It was literally like looking in the mirror , seeing your duple … My mom bawled , and I was like , ‘ Is Steven my pa ? ’ ”
Sisters Liv and Mia Tyler just appeared on theSibling RevelrypodcastwithKate Hudsonand Oliver Hudson, and the story of how they first met is truly something from a movie script.
For context, Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler hasfour childrenwith three different women: he shares his eldest child, Liv, with Bebe Buell, Mia with his first ex-wife, Cyrinda Foxe, and Chelsea and Taj with his second ex-wife, Teresa Barrick. The four siblings have close relationships today. However, it wasn’t until Liv was nearly 10 years old that she discovered she was actually a Tyler and not a Rundgren, as she’d previously been led to believe.
First, we need to rewind to sometime in 1976 when Liv’s mom, Bebe, was introduced to Steven; the two hooked up, and she got pregnant. Speaking on the latest episode of Kate and Oliver Hudson’s podcast, Liv recalled that her mom was in her early 20s at the time and was not comfortable with Steven’s drug use, so she decided to leave and raise her baby with her ex, Todd Rundgren.
So, Liv was born in July 1977 and was raised in Maine, believing that Todd was her biological father. Meanwhile, in 1978, her birth father, Steven, married Cyrinda Foxe, and the couple welcomed their first child in December of that same year. Mia was raised in New Hampshire, and it wasn’t for another eight years or so that the sisters met for the first time when their moms brought them to the same Aerosmith concert.
“I remember there were no kids backstage. So we played hard that night. And we were at this VIP area, outside of the green rooms, and we were just like, you know, doing our 8 and 9-year-old thing, and this fan lady came up, and she was like, ‘Oh my god, you girls are so cute. Are you guys sisters?’ … And we pretended we were sisters,” Mia remembered, as Liv recalled they “looked like twins.”
Recalling the story of their first meeting, both sisters fought tears. “Guns N’ Roses were opening for Aerosmith,” Liv said. “We had driven to the gig at a place called Great Woods… I was so excited because I just loved Guns N’ Roses. And on the side of the stage was this one standing there.”
“I just remember standing there watching them play, looking and seeing this girl who looked exactly like me. Like, we literally had the same outfit on. We had both had perms, like spiral perms, pink frosty lipstick,” she continued. “We were both wearing an Aerosmith concert T-shirt with black leggings and Reebok high-top sneakers. I looked, and I was like,Wait, that’s me. It was really weird. It was literally like looking in the mirror, seeing your double.”
Liv was taken aback by how much Mia looked like her, and when she looked over at her mom, it became obvious that she was emotional, too. “She just started crying. My mom bawled, and I was like, ‘Is Steven my dad?’” she recalled, revealing this was when she finally learned the truth about her family. “We sat on a bench at an outdoor amphitheater, and she told me the whole story in the most sincere, beautiful way… And then we went backstage after the show there was Mia, and we met for the first time.”
And while the discovery was very exciting for the girls, it was equally challenging for Liv to learn that Todd wasn’t her biological dad. Speaking about Todd today, she said: “I think it’s probably still very hard and painful, and I don’t speak to him enough. I love him. I have brothers from him and I had a whole family with them.”
Honestly , someone needs to make a movie about this family . you may listen to Mia and Liv ’s full appearance on theSibling Revelrypodcast here .
