Their romance ended about 40 years ago.
Nobody knew about it: This is the famous ex-partner of Udo Lindenberg
Updated July 25, 2026 – 06:02.Reading time: 2 min.
Udo Lindenberg: The Hamburg musician recalls a stormy love life. (Source: IMAGO/Thomas Schröer/imago)
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Masks, secret hotel routes and almost photos: only decades later, Udo Lindenberg and the singer made their short romance public.
Photographer Tine Ake was the woman next to Udo Lindeberg for almost 30 years. However, she is not the only woman in the Hamburg musician’s dating history – before they were together, he dated several other famous women. Among other things, singer Nena.
- Udo Lindenberg: It’s the woman next to him
The two musicians met at Berlin Tegel Airport in 1985. “In my peripheral vision I see Udo in a long green leather Vopo coat,” Nena recalled in an interview with Tagesspiegel in 2016. She had never met him before. “It was cute, charming and funny from the first second. We did it all in secret,” said the musician. It was only 20 years later that the case became public; in a joint interview with Bild, they revealed “the biggest secret in show business.”
Nena and Udo Lindenberg in 1997: They kept their love a secret for 20 years. (Source: POP-EYE/Morlok/imago-images-bilder)
This was achieved, among other things, with the help of disguise, Nena reported then: “I went through a reception at Interconti wearing a monkey mask. On Sylt, they secretly smuggled me into hotels at night with a blanket over my head, or was it Timmendorf?” One day, the then editor-in-chief of Bravo almost caught the two of them in the lobby of a London hotel. “I jumped behind the velvet curtain… It was really exciting – for a whole year. Then it became boring,” said Nena. The stars separated a year later, this would have been in 1986 – about 40 years ago.
Nena: “We meet from time to time”
Meanwhile, not only Lindenberg found love, but also Nena. She has been in a relationship with her partner Philip Palm for over 30 years. Relations with her ex are still good today: “We meet from time to time, we always fall warmly into each other’s arms, chat a little about the “old” times – and then everyone goes their own way,” she told the Bild newspaper in 2017.
Lindenberg and Nena not only bonded as a couple, but also worked together musically. In 1986, they released the song “Now you’re going” together, and in 2002 they re-recorded the song. They also once sang Lindenberg’s hit “Horizont” together.