6 Things You May Not Know About Danielle Steel

Danielle Steel is the bestselling author alive and it could also be argued that she is among the hardest working. Her productivity defies belief and, although she turns 74 this year, she shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, the opposite is true! During the last five years, she has put out six or seven bestsellers a year! Her third title of 2021, Finding Ashley, came out yesterday on April 27. Here we share six things you may not know about her.

1. She is a mother of nine.

I'm very organized. You can't have nine children and not be organized. Otherwise it just looks like Appalachia.

Steel had her first daughter, Beatrix in 1966, when she was just nineteen. Her ninth child, daughter Zara, was born in 1987 when Steel was forty. Even while raising her large brood of young children, Steel averaged about two or three books a year. She has been very vocal about how important parenthood is to her, writing in a post on her blog, "I am very, very grateful for my writing career, but hands down what has always meant the most to me in my life are my children."

In fact, although she is best known for her romance novels, she has also written nearly twenty children's books including the Max & Martha series, the Freddie series, and picture books Pretty Minnie in Hollywood, Pretty Minnie in Paris, and The Happiest Hippo in the World.

2. She often doesn't sleep more than four hours a night.

Dead or alive, rain or shine, I get to my desk and I do my work.

After all those years of raising kids while still writing several books a year, perhaps it's little wonder that Steel isn't in the habit of getting much sleep. Her remarkable work ethic means that she is at her desk working by eight each morning and often works through the night, while juggling several different projects at once. This can lead to confusion at times. In a 2019 appearance on GMA to promote her historical novel Spy, Steel described the occasional midnight mishap when she has found herself writing a character into the wrong book.

3. Growing up, she had different ideas for her career.

I wanted to be a nun when I was young

As a child, Danielle Steel had dreams of joining a convent. This plan changed when she got married at seventeen, but her faith has remained a huge part of her life. In a 2008 interview with Reuters, she said, "Religion is what keeps me going. I would be utterly lost without it." This fantasy of being a nun played out in a few of Steel's bestselling books including The Long Road Home and Echoes. Another of Steel's early ambitions included being a fashion designer. As a teenager, she studied design in New York City at Parsons School of Design and New York University. This is a scenario explored in volumes like Against All Odds and First Sight.

4. She met her husband while he was in prison.

You'd be surprised how fast things happen when the right man comes along.

Married five (!) times, Steel met her second husband, Danny Zugelder, while he was serving time in a California prison. After his release in 1973, he briefly moved in with Steel, but returned to prison on new charges shortly thereafter. Undeterred, Steel married him in the prison canteen. They divorced in 1978, but the steamy relationship inspired Passion's Promise and Now and Forever, the two books credited with launching Steel's career.

5. She writes all her books on a vintage 1946 typewriter she calls Ollie.

I paid $20 for that typewriter the beginning of my career and I'm getting my money out of it.

Steel sold her first novel, Going Home, at age 25 for $3,500 and now has a net worth of roughly $310 million, so she's certainly made good on her investment. All of her books, including 2020's All That Glitters, are instant bestsellers. Steel is a self described Luddite and prefers her typewriter to a computer. She doesn't use email much, saying, "Half the time I send them to the wrong people and the other half, I delete them, so I try and stay away from it."

6. She is a champion of those struggling with mental illness.

Who doesn't need hope in their lives: hope that something can change, that someone cares, that not only bad things happen unexpectedly but good things can happen to us too?

One of Steel's sons suffered from bipolar disorder and took his own life in 1997. Devastated, but galvanized, Steel started the Nick Traina Foundation, named for her son. She has written several books that deal with mental illness, including a memoir about this colossal loss, His Bright Light: The Story Nick Traina, published in 1999.

In 2012's A Gift of Hope, she writes about how she transformed her pain into a campaign of service. For eleven years, she took to the streets with a small team to help the homeless of San Francisco.

Danielle Steel's books reflect the illustrious author's own dramatic life, varied interests, and deepest passions. A mix of contemporary and historical, they often touch upon themes of family connections, loss, overcoming trauma, and living with secrets. Whether or not you're already a fan, we hope you're intrigued to check out one of her myriad titles including some of our favorites:

• Jewels
• Kaleidoscope
• Daddy's Girls
• The Affair
• Safe Harbour

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Read more by Ashly Moore Sheldon