Bruce Springsteen’s Daughter Is Making Waves In A Very Different Industry To Her Dad’s

Her dad found fame as one of music’s all-time greats. Her mom plays in his band and has a musical career of her own. So it would perhaps have been easy for Jessica Springsteen to follow in their footsteps. Or she might even have opted for the socialite life offered by her dad’s vast wealth. But she picked a different path and is now a rising star in her own right.

Jessica’s dad is, of course, rock legend Bruce Springsteen. Her mom’s his wife of 30 years and E Street Band member, Patti Scialfa. No doubt, then, that the household was filled with music during her upbringing. But the star couple chose to bring up their children away from the limelight and free to forge their own paths in life.

In fact, the Springsteen-Scialfa brood don’t seem to have cared much about their parents’ success while they were growing up. As Springsteen explained to The New York Times in 2017, “They showed a healthy disinterest in our work over all the years. They had their own musical heroes, they had their own music they were interested in. They’d be pretty blank-faced if someone mentioned a song title of mine.”

Raising their kids low-key seemed to have the desired effect, then. So aside from occasionally appearing onstage with their dad or accompanying him to awards ceremonies, and sporadic images on their parents’ Instagram accounts, little’s known about the Springsteen kids. But that’s about to change, at least for rising star Jessica.

Springsteen and Scialfa were both raised in New Jersey, barely 10 miles apart. Despite sharing mutual pals, it was a chance encounter in a local bar that eventually led to Scialfa joining her future husband’s band. But it’d be six years, one tumultuous marriage and a subsequent divorce for Springsteen before the pair tied the knot.

Until his first marriage, the man fans call “The Boss” had a fear of commitment. His relationships lasted little more than a couple of years and his destructive nature was something he tried desperately to hide from his then-bride. Rather than scare his “educated, talented, beautiful and charming” wife by revealing his true self, Springsteen instead disgraced her by having an affair with Scialfa. He’d suddenly seen his band-mate “with new eyes.”

But the Springsteen-Scialfa romance was fraught with more hurdles than just his marriage and subsequent separation. The demons that had plagued all The Boss’ previous relationships crept into his new one. And though his new partner ultimately won the fight against them, there were still more barriers to overcome: among them was the fear of becoming a dad.

The difficult relationship between Springsteen and his father’s well documented, not least through his music. And he was scared that those troubles would become something he repeated with kids of his own. As he explained during a 2019 chat on CBS This Morning, “There were a lot of mistakes I didn’t want to make.”

In a later conversation with former president Barack Obama on the Renegades podcast in March 2021, Springsteen described doubting his paternal capabilities. “I think that was the question: ‘Am I capable of not disappointing?’” he confessed. “You’re never completely sure, I suppose. But after the children [are] born [you] start to find the resources you have inside you.”

The first of those children, son Evan James, was born in the summer of 1990. The Boss and Scialfa tied the knot almost a year later. Their daughter, Jessica Rae arrived in the winter of 1991, while their second son followed around two years later in January 1994. As Springsteen recalled on Renegades, “I felt a fearless love for the first time in my life.”

Until he became a dad aged 40, Springsteen never really knew a life outside of rock ’n’ roll, such was his dedication to his chosen craft. And that work ethic’s a value that he’s passed on to his kids. When they were old enough to attend school, he and Scialfa returned to New Jersey away from the prying eyes of the California media and close to their huge extended family.

As the songwriter explained to talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel in October 2019, “We had an 80-member Italian-Irish family, and that was the way that I grew up, so I wanted my kids to have that sense of a bigger world than the entertainment world. I wanted them to see people that did a lot of other things, be around people who would shape them and they would have a lot of options.”

So Springsteen and Scialfa would rather their children find their own paths in life than push them into a career in music. And as it turned out their oldest son, Evan, was the only one who harbored any desire to follow in their footsteps. More eagle-eyed fans may well have spotted him with a guitar onstage next to his parents.

The eldest of the three Springsteen siblings is currently a producer at Sirius XM Radio. The youngest, though, chose a very different profession. In January 2020 Sam Springsteen became a firefighter at the Jersey City Fire Department. His parents were overjoyed at the then-26-year-old’s achievement.

As Springsteen Snr said during the ceremony, “We’re very proud. It was a long road. He was very dedicated for quite a few years, and we’re just excited for him today.” It appears, then, that his work ethic has rubbed off on his kids. And nowhere is that more apparent than with his daughter, Jessica.

You see, where her brothers have chosen lives away from the limelight, Jessica’s found a more public calling. She studied psychology and graduated from North Carolina’s Ivy League Duke University in 2014. And though that isn’t the field that the middle Springsteen child pursued in the end, she does feel her degree gives her an advantage in terms of mindset.

And it isn’t just work values that Jessica’s picked up from her father. She’s a chip off the old block in the looks department, too. Just like her siblings, the resemblance to their father when he was a similar age is uncanny. Long-time fans may even remember when The Boss had long, flowing locks as well.

Even today, there’s more than a vague similarity between father and daughter. For instance, both have a rich olive skin tone and sharp, chiseled cheekbones. The dark, brooding eyes and thick, brown, wavy hair are also something Jessica’s clearly inherited from her dad. With her striking looks, it could be thought that she was destined for a career in modeling.

In fact, Jessica did strike a few poses for the camera back in 2014. That’s right, at the age of 22 she was selected as an ambassador for the Gucci luxury fashion house. She took part in a spread for Editorialist shot at the Springsteens’ New Jersey family farm. And, as with her brother’s firefighting induction, her mom and dad were present to offer their, ahem, “support.”

“You’re a tiger, Jess!” her dad teased as Jessica posed for photos wearing a Gucci dress. According to Today magazine, he followed that up with, “You’re a bird!” When she donned a biker jacket for another set of photos, her father voiced his admiration. “She’s bringing the rock,” he was heard to comment. But this was an opportunity the younger Springsteen won in her own right.

Frida Giannini, Gucci’s creative director, confirmed that the fashion brand specifically targeted Jessica for the campaign. She said that Jessica “brings the elegant, dynamic spirit of Gucci alive.” The model responded by saying that the label is “all about strength and confidence.” And it seemed as though her foray into fashion was meant to be.

Jessica confessed during the shoot that she would attempt to liberate her mom’s wardrobe of Gucci apparel when she was growing up. She then complained that Scialfa would conceal the garments from her. But as her musician mom teased, “It’s Gucci. She can borrow it, not have it.” It seems, though, that Scialfa’s influence on her daughter went a long way beyond her wardrobe.

There are times when Jessica’s mom’s genes are evident, too, of course. The striking red hair may be absent, yet the unconventional beauty is unmistakable. But all this fashion horseplay’s a mere aside to the 29-year-old’s chosen vocation. She’s a champion show-jumper who represented the U.S.A. equestrian team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

You see, when the family relocated to New Jersey from L.A. in the 1990s, they bought a huge horse farm in the Colts Neck area. It was a property that The Boss had his eye on for several years. As he recalled in his autobiography, Born To Run, “I’d always wanted some land near my home town. A piece came up that I’d biked past since my 30s.”

“I’d looked down its beautiful lane and often thought… someday,” the singer continued. “The woman who owned it was an artist and she lived there until she died. It came up for sale. Patti and I looked at it for a long time and then we bought it.” And it was on this property that his daughter found her passion for horse riding.

Jessica described her life with rock star parents when talking to the World of Showjumping website in January 2019. “Growing up in New Jersey, it was a very normal upbringing,” she recalled. “I think it was clever of my parents to have us raised there. As a child, it was nice for me to have something that I was so focused on and worked really hard with. I was able to take a lot of confidence from the sport, too.”

Jessica’s earliest encounters with horses came courtesy of her mom when she was barely old enough to walk. But it wasn’t something her parents pushed her to be competitive in. Jessica first took to riding when she was four. Within a couple of years, her mom and dad had bought her a pony. Expensive, but, as it happened, a sound investment.

“My mom had always wanted to ride when she was younger,” Jessica explained. “When we moved from California to New Jersey – to a farm – my mum started taking lessons and then I started as well. We happened to be right across the street from Beacon Hill Showjumping Stables, which is a huge equestrian stable. I started taking lessons there and then it kind of escalated.”

By the time she was a teenager, Jessica was ready for competition jumping. At the age of 16 she won the ASPCA Maclay Finals in 2008. Proving that was no flash in the pan, she followed the victory with another in the WEF Excellence in Equitation Championship a year later. And that was just the beginning.

Jessica recognized during her first year of college that she wanted to pursue a career in equestrianism. She explained, “That is kind of the time – in the States at least – to make a decision on whether you’re going to try and do both, or stop riding and just focus on school. It was never a question for me to stop riding.”

The rider vividly recalled the moment she made the decision to go pro. “The summer after my freshman year our federation sent a group of young riders to compete in Nations Cups in Europe,” Jessica said. “At the time I was training with Laura Kraut and that was my first summer of competing in Europe. It just opened my eyes to a whole different world.” There was nothing else she wanted to do.

Under the tutelage of some elite equestrian instructors, Jessica’s career flourished. She rode in 2011’s Royal Windsor Horse Show and a year later was a reserve for Team U.S.A. in the Olympics. Jessica was then victorious in 2014’s American Gold Cup, and followed that with a debut five-star Grand Prix win in 2016 and a title at the Royal Windsor Horse Show a year later.

But Jessica doesn’t credit her success entirely to her trainers. Nor, even, her parents. Nope. The equestrian believes her horses and the synergy she has with them play just as big a part in competing as any physical or mental preparation. It’s the thing that attracted her to riding in the first place and it continues to motivate her to this day.

“For me, what I love most about this sport is the relationship you have with the animals,” Jessica explained. “There is really no other sport like it, and I think the connection you develop with the horses is something really special... Once you’ve created that partnership, the horses can read what you are thinking before you even ask them to do it.”

Despite being a world away from the spotlights of her father’s profession, Jessica does acknowledge some similarities to her mom and dad’s lives. After all, it takes her away from home for long periods, often riding one show after another. That’s something her mom and dad do themselves when they’re off touring the world.

Jessica, though, doesn’t feel she has the showman traits that have been the core of her father’s success. “What my dad does is very different,” she told The Daily Telegraph in August 2021. “I hate public speaking or anything like that.” The show-jumper described being oblivious to the crowds watching her compete. Of course, that audience is precisely what her father thrives on.

Jessica’s mom and dad enjoy watching her compete and attend her competitions whenever their touring schedule allows. “This has become such a big passion for my parents, they love to come to the shows,” the rider explained. “They find it relaxing.” But there was one major tournament that they couldn’t make it to.

It was confirmed in July 2021 that Jessica would represent Team U.S.A. in the Tokyo Summer Olympics. She announced in an Instagram post, “Been dreaming of this since I can remember! Endless gratitude for my team, friends and family for helping me make this a reality… We are Tokyo bound... Let’s go, U.S.A.!”

Though Jessica narrowly missed out on the individual final, the team event was another story. In a nail-biting finish, the talented equestrian helped the U.S.A. to a silver medal. Sweden took the edge in a jump-off that Jessica described as “wild.” And the show-jumper was quickly on the phone to her parents to share the news.

“I FaceTimed them really quick,” Springsteen informed CNN in the aftermath. “They were all screaming, I don’t think we understood anything.” She’s currently the best-ranked female in the world equestrian standings at 14th. Of her performance, she said, “You definitely start to get the jitters. But it was also super exciting. My horse jumped it beautifully. We really gave it our all out there.”