What to Know About Carly Simon’s 2 Children, Ben and Sally Taylor

Carly Simon shares son Ben and daughter Sally with ex-husband, James Taylor

NEED TO KNOW

• Carly Simon shares her two children, Ben and Sally, with her ex-husband, James Taylor

• Sally is an education activist and artist, while Ben is a musician

• In July 2026, Carly revealed her Parkinson’s disease and skin cancer diagnoses

Carly Simon is grateful for the support of her two children.

In July 2026, the musician revealed that she has Parkinson’s disease, according to a statement obtained by PEOPLE. At the same time, she also announced that she underwent surgery for basal cell carcinoma — a form of skin cancer — on her face.

“I am deeply grateful to my children, my family, my friends, my caregivers, and the medical professionals who have helped me through this,” Simon wrote in her statement. “Their love and patience have carried me through days when my own reserves were not enough.”

Simon welcomed her first child, daughter Sally, in 1974 with then-husband James Taylor, whom she married two years prior in 1972. They expanded their family with their son, Ben, who was born in 1977. After Simon and Taylor’s split in 1983, Taylor went on to marry Caroline “Kim” Smedvig-Taylor and welcomed two more sons, twins Henry and Rufus.

The singer continues to live in the Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., home she shared with Taylor, and remains exceptionally close with her children. “We call ourselves CBS—Carly, Ben, Sally,” Simon previously said in an interview for Sally’s organization Consenses.org. “There’s no one who can reach my soul like Sally and Ben can.”

Here’s everything to know about Carly Simon’s two children, Ben and Sally Taylor.

Sarah Maria “Sally” Taylor, 52

Simon and Taylor welcomed their first child, Sarah Maria “Sally” Taylor, on Jan. 7, 1974, in New York City.

The musician shares a close bond with her firstborn. In their family’s Consenses.org interview, Sally called her mom the “queen of guidance” and said she got her “vulnerability and openness” from Simon.

“She has always been my girlfriend when it came to advice on guys and men and how to handle love. Because she’s written more poetry on the subject than anyone,” Sally added.

Sally started writing songs as a teen, even though she didn’t follow in the family business until she was 20 years old after a near-death experience. While riding a small plane in Peru, it crashed onto a highway below.

Sally told the New York Times in June 2018 that she had exactly two thoughts as the crash was happening: “If I survive, I want to make music, and I want to have kids.”

She did just that — following her trip, Sally released her first studio album, Tomboy Bride, in 1999. She went on to release two others — Apt. #6S in 2000 and Shotgun in 2001 — and toured for several years.

After retiring from touring in 2003, Sally married husband Dean Bragonier, she told Rural Intelligence. She gave birth to their son, Bodhi, in October 2007.

Sally went on to teach music at Berklee College of Music and founded her organization, Consenses, in 2012, which aims to make education more accessible to all. Inspired by her family’s dyslexia diagnoses, the method behind Consenses mimics a game of Telephone, using art passed between creatives instead of words for communication.

“I couldn’t believe nobody had thought of it sooner?!” she wrote on her website of dreaming up the idea. “A way to bring all the arts, in their many forms, together under one roof and in the process to show how necessary and helpful our differences can be.”

Over the years, Sally has paid tribute to her famous parents. In May 2024, she debuted a sweet Mother’s Day song for Simon called “The Star That You Are.”

“Growing up, the offspring of such an iconic figure could easily engulf one in a shadow so vast, it might seem impossible to find your own light,” she wrote in a blog post that exclusively debuted with PEOPLE. “But here’s the thing – Mama always had an uncanny way of making space for my cacophonies amidst her own symphonies.”

Benjamin Simon “Ben” Taylor, 49

Simon and Taylor welcomed their second child, Benjamin Simon “Ben” Taylor, on Jan. 22, 1977. Growing up, Ben and Sally weren’t that close — until one crucial incident.

“[They] fought terribly. Since Sally is three years older than Ben, she always bossed him around — until one day he fought back,” Simon told PEOPLE in October 2007. “He actually slapped her on the back, and they both ended up crying. For the first time he felt empathy for her, and she realized they were equals. They’ve been close ever since.”

Like his older sister, Ben didn’t officially begin performing until his 20s, when he could no longer deny that his musical heritage was calling to him. Before then, he’d been afraid of feeling like he needed to compare himself with his famous parents.

“I think that I am hyper-vigilantly self-critical when it comes to … music because my folks have set such incredible examples of success, obviously,” he explained on NPR’s Tell Me More in September 2012. “I procrastinated admitting to myself that I wanted to be a professional musician because I figured I’d be looking at myself closer than anyone else would under that microscope of comparison.”

His parents didn’t try to talk him out of it once he did decide to pursue music. “She’s never discouraged anything,” Ben added, referring to Simon. “That’s her method and it’s done good because I do believe in myself quite a bit.”

Ben has gone on to release six studio albums, per his site.