Steel's life was upended in 1994 when an unauthorized biography put her in the public eye and she became tabloid fodder. The experience broke up a marriage and nearly made her quit writing.
PEOPLE first interviewed author Danielle Steel in 1979, when her fourth novel, The Promise, was selling at a rate of 6,000 copies a week, and had already gone through a two-million print run. Over the course of her now 50-year career, she's written 212 books and sold over 1 billion copies worldwide. And she shows no signs of slowing down.
The prolific author now splits her time between Paris and San Francisco, where she's owned a famous baux-arts mansion for five decades, and she enjoys spending as much time as possible with her kids and grandkids, traveling, and of course, coming up with fresh ideas for her novels which she still writes on an old-fashioned typewriter. Other than being a mother, she's said writing what fulfills her the most.
"I feel very lucky because I've been allowed to do what I love doing for my whole life," the author told PEOPLE for a 2024 print feature. "I never take it for granted. Every time I send a book either to my editor or my publisher, I'm terrified they're gonna hate it and I've lost my touch and I don't know what I'm doing. I'm amazed when they love it. I'm so grateful."
Steel was born into a life of wealth and privilege in New York -- her German father was a scion of Munich's Lowenbrau beer dynasty, and her Portuguese mother was the daughter of a diplomat. They separated when she was 8, and Steel was looked after by relatives and servants, telling PEOPLE in 1979, "I got very attached to the cook."
At 12, she attended New York's prestigious Lycee Francais and was obsessed with studying: "Sometimes I'd do eight hours of homework a night," she said. By 15, she had entered the Parsons School of Design. "I wanted to be the new Chanel," she said of her passion for high fashion.
But the stress was too much, and she switched to NYU. By age 18, she had married wealthy French banker Claud-Eric Lazard. They split their time between Paris and San Francisco, but Steel was growing restless with the demands of being a debutante. She told PEOPLE, "I was very bored and disenchanted with the comfortable world I grew up in," she said. "I saw the hypocrisy."
Prior to discovering her talent for fiction, Steel worked at a PR and ad agency called Supergirls in Manhattan. In 1971, client John Mack Carter, then-editor of Ladies' Home Journal, suggested Danielle become a writer. She began writing the novel Going Home, and in 1973, it became an instant hit.
"Every woman falls in love with a bastard at least once in her life," is how she summed up the plot.
Her own marriage at the time was unraveling, and in 1974, she and Lazard divorced after nine years of marriage. They had one child together, a daughter named Beatrix.
After the split, Steel dove into writing. For five years, she wrote 10 hours every day. "As a kid, I had been very lonely and read incessantly," she said. "After my separation, I found I am never lonely when I write. You concoct dream men because there are no men in your life." In 2024, she told PEOPLE that she can write for up to 20 hours at a stretch, running on just three hours of sleep.
Her books are, as one admirer called them, "today's fairytales." There is no "raping and plundering," she told PEOPLE, but plenty of sex, and her heroes range from professional football stars to TV talk show hosts and ordinary people.
Her work ethic was unrivaled from the start. "I start at 9 and work in my bedroom," Steel told PEOPLE. "It drives everyone else crazy. People bring me food, and I shovel it in five hours later. Once a book is really going, I can't get away from it. Sometimes I forget to comb my hair. And if I'm in the bathtub, I'll scrawl notes on the mirror or the wall. Writing is just an all-consuming passion."
After Steel split from Lazard in 1974, she fell for Danny Zugelder, whom she wed in 1975 inside a prison in Vacaville, Calif, where he was incarcerated at the time for robbery and sexual assault. She'd met him while she was there visiting another inmate, doing research for a magazine article on conscientious objectors in prison. They divorced in 1978.
In the fall of 1977, she met Bill Toth, a drug and alcohol abuse counselor in San Francisco, when he'd been hired to help her move. They married in 1978, and she got pregnant with her second child Nick, who was born that same year. Their marriage ended after three years when Toth was unable to kick his drug habit.
Of the marriages to Zugelder and Toth, Steel once told PEOPLE, "I'm probably the most uptight, conservative person you'll meet. I'm very religious. I've been this way my whole life—which is why I married those two morons instead of just sleeping with them."
She and Toth divorced in 1978. In 1981, she wed shipping executive John Traina. They stayed together for 17 years and had five children together. Steel also became mom to Traina’s two children—Trevor and Todd—from his first marriage. As for why she and Traina eventually split, Steel once told PEOPLE: “Guys don’t like it when the focus is on you and you’re the famous person.”
In the mid-90s, Steel began dating Tom Perkins, a wealthy Silicon Valley venture capitalist who loved sailing.
"He's very supportive of my work," she told PEOPLE at the time. "But sometimes I'm afraid that I'll intimidate him, too ... Unfortunately, I think I've reached the point where the aura of my success is going to scare everybody to death forever."
The couple married in March of 1998, but were separated 17 months later. Friends blamed Perkins' extended business and yachting expeditions on the divorce: "Danielle hates yachting," said Tony Hail, a Perkins pal. "I don't know why in the world he married her in the first place."
"My kids are the most important part of my life," Steel told PEOPLE in 2024. She had plenty of help while they were growing up -- a housekeeper and three nannies for her five youngest children so she could be there for when it was important. "I wanted my children to feel they had a nonworking mother and my husband to feel he had a normal wife," she told PEOPLE in the '90s. "My husband pretended I didn't do anything. My kids saw me pick them up at school and I was just Mom."
Her first daughter, Beatrix Lazard Seidenberg, now 59, is a social worker at UCSF's Benioff Children's Hospital.
Nick Traina, whose father was Bill Toth (he was adopted by John Traina), was a singer in a rock band. He had bipolar disorder and in 1997 died by suicide at age 19. The tragedy haunts Steel to this day.
In the wake of that loss, she wrote His Bright Light: The Story of Nick Traina and used the proceeds from its sales to launch the Nick Traina Foundation in December 1997. Its mission is to help fund mental health support organizations. About two years later, she launched Yo! Angel! to address a need she saw in San Francisco, where she lived at the time. "I was in church praying ... Who can I help? Who's feeling more miserable than I am? And what came to me was to help the homeless."
Todd Traina, 55, is a San Francisco-based film producer and founder of Red Rover Films.
Trevor Traina, 57, is a successful businessman, investor and former diplomat. He served as the U.S. ambassador to Austria between 2018-2021.
Samantha Traina, 43, is a fashion stylist and consultant in L.A. who has worked as a creative director at Target xWho What Wear ,and has consulted on brands like Thakoon ,Tory Burch ,goop ,Joie and Current/Elliot .
Victoria Traina ,41 ,is also in the fashion business ,living in New York working as director of fashion visual merchandising at Proenza Schouler ,where she's worked for 14 years .
Vanessa Traina ,40 ,is a fashion editor consultant .Along with her two older sisters ,she can often be seen at couture shows other fashion events where they are known in the fashion industry as the "Traina trinity."
Maxximillian Traina ,39 ,works in business development startups San Francisco .For past year he’s been director sales company Overjet .
Zara Traina ,37 ,is San Francisco-based entrepreneur runs tie-dye business called zees tees .Steel can often be seen wearing Zara’s creations Instagram .
In 1994 ,Steel was distraught when an unauthorized biography ,The Lives of Danielle Steel was published and she found herself tabloid fodder .Her ex-husbands Zugelder Toth both gave writer’s salacious stories .
In the aftermath of the scandalous press ,Steel almost quit writing.
"I was determined to retire because I felt it was costing my family too much," the author said at the time. "But that's what my books are about: the tough stuff that happens to you in life. Does it beat you or do you beat it? And what is left of you and your integrity when it's over?"
Her grit and determination saw her through the worst of it. "Having this happen told me who my friends were, and it strengthened my writing," she says. "I thought I had failed my children when the family fell apart, but now I think that if I'd maintained the illusion of a perfect family, they would have been unprepared for life as grown-ups. This way, the storm did hit and we're still standing."
Steel's most recent book, For Richer For Poorer came out Aug. 12. It follows fashion designer and single mother of five Eugenia Ward who's trying to keep her family together amidst business struggles, an upcoming wedding threatened by a hurricane, twins with an ill-timed due date and a new friendship with a brilliant businessman.