Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford have a special history. On Sunday, as Redford was honored at the Academy Awards, Streisand delivered an emotional tribute to her late friend — and revealed the contents of her final note to him.
The legendary actor Robert Redford passed away in September last year at the age of 89. During the 2026 Academy Awards, he was remembered alongside many others who died over the past year through a moving performance.
During the In Memoriam segment at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California, Barbra Streisand stepped onto the stage in a black gown and shared several personal memories of Redford — including how the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid actor used to tease her.
“I miss him now more than ever, even how he loved teasing me,” Streisand said. “He’d call me, ‘Babs.’ And I’d say, ‘Bob, you know, do I look like a Babs?’ But the way he said it made me laugh.”
She continued, “Many years later, we were chatting on the phone about the usual — politics, art, Modigliani, our favorite. And as we were hanging up, he said, ‘Babs, I love you dearly, and I always will.’”
That phone call stayed with her. It became the heart of the final note she wrote to him before he passed away.
“I ended it with, ‘I love you too,’ and I signed it ‘Babs.,’” she recalled.
Redford was beloved by many. Streisand went on to describe him as “thoughtful and bold,” calling him an “intellectual cowboy who blazed his own trail.”
Before leaving the stage, she performed a tear‑jerking rendition of The Way We Were’s title song. Both Redford and Streisand starred in the film of the same name, and the song won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 1974.
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