David Bowie’s son, Duncan Jones, and his wife, Rodene Ronquillo, welcomed a son on July 10th. The baby, named Stenton David Jones, was born exactly six months from the day David Bowie succumbed to cancer. One month after Bowie passed, Duncan announced they were expecting with this tweet:
1 month since dad died today. Made this card for him at Christmas. Due in June. Circle of life. Love you, granddad. pic.twitter.com/sf7SEUtm64
— Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) February 10, 2016
At least Bowie knew of his grandchild before he died. According to the tweet, Stenton was due in June, so it’s likely there was no medical planning to get the baby out six months to the day after Bowie’s passing. I chose to believe the Starman planned the whole thing with his usual dramatic flare.
The circle of life. Duncan Jones and his wife, Rodene Ronquillo, welcomed their first child together, a baby boy, on July 10, exactly six months after Jones’ dad David Bowie’s death.
The Moon director, 45, announced the exciting news via Twitter on Friday, July 29, alongside a funny cartoon of the new family of three.
He also shared a sweet message to his wife, writing, “All my love and awe to the incredible @rodeneronquillo who made a human being in her belly. Warrior woman & every day, my hero.”
The film producer and his photographer love announced in February that they were expecting a little bundle of joy. “1 month since dad died. … Due in June. Circle of life. Love you, granddad,” he wrote at the time.
The David middle name is obvious. I cannot find the connection to Stenton, possibly a family name? According to House of Names, “Stenton is a topographic surname, which was given to a person who resided near a physical feature such as a hill, stream, church, or type of tree.” I want to make a poetic connection about being born near the Tree of Life or something like that but I think I’m reaching with that.
There is much more to Rodene and Duncan’s story that I did not know. Rodene was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012 while the couple was engaged. The day they received her stage 2 diagnosis, they went to the courthouse and got married. She was cleared of cancer in October 2013, six months before Bowie received his diagnosis. What a roller coaster this poor family has been on for the last four years. Thank goodness they have a healthy baby.
I want to believe that Stenton falls asleep to his grandfather’s lullabies just like my kids did.
Stenton David Jones. Born July 10th, exactly six months after his grandad made room for him.
Love you both so. ❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/Axdee1iRhE— Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) July 29, 2016
Photo credit: WENN Photos, Getty Images and Twitter
Lovely post, Hecate. Duncan sounds so sweet and loving. Wait until the baby finds out who his grandfather was!
And thank you for the lullaby. It makes me smile to think of babies falling asleep blissfully to that gentle music.
David Bowie and Iman were interviewed by Hello Magazine in their 19th September 2000 issue after the arrival of Alexandria. Iman said “If we had had a little boy, he would have been called Stenton. That’s David’s father’s other name. Such a strong name.” So yes, a family name. Not unusual in that generation for the oldest son to have the maiden name of the mother as a middle name, my uncle did. I remember this so clearly because my maiden name is similar and I wondered whether I was distantly related to DB. Highly unlikely going by my own lack of musical talent!
That’s beautiful and sweet. Best wishes to the new parents. It’s bittersweet to welcome a child after the passing of a your own parent.
My Best friend will be welcoming her baby on Friday, one year after her mom passed. It’s sad and sweet and happy and heart wrenching for her all at once.
I liked Duncan as a director until he did that complete waste of space an time that was Warcraft. Never mind that China saved the movie (ugh, bless them but Chinese audiences would buy an used car from Trump, if it comes with videogames on it ) I’ve completely lost respect for him as a filmmaker because not only he still refuses to acknowledge that the movie is bad, which is ok since nobody is forced to dig their own grave, but the kept pimping the movie and being harsh again anybody who said the truth: that the movie is crap. At least be honest and shut your mouth. He’s a sellout: he wants so bad that money for a sequel to that crap.
Anyway another thing I didn’t like about him is that for months he posted and shared private things about his pregnant wife, daily posts about how they were dealing with the pregnancy and out of a sudden when the kid was born he just hid it. why? maybe because previously he had a movie to promote and he even used his father’s death to bring sympathy and press for what he knew was a terrible movie.
No bueno Duncan.
Wow. Maybe he really believed in the movie. He’s passionate about the game itself. The reviews by critics might have been low, but the Rotten Tomatoes audience score was 77 percent happy with it. The movie had an A- Cinemascore. So definitely enough people were happy with it.
And to be so judgmental about him and their baby and how or when they decided to announce it is a bit harsh.
He is one of the sweetest guys around.
He gets a lot of love because of his iconic father passing away.
I’m not harsh just pointing facts. he made a great deal out of sharing his private life while the movie was in the making/promotion.
Rotten Tomatoes audience just as IMDB scores are just the hardcore fans of the movie, the same ones that invaded comments boars bullying whomever disagreed with them. Cinemascope is of cours the fans off the game that would have watched the movie no matter what, and of course they liked, they would have liked anything titled warcraft!
He may be one of the sweetest guys around but when are fans and audiences going to learn that this is a business with millions of dollars at stakes and carriers depending of how the players project their images to fans and audiences? Its all about PR, always
Jeesh, would you prefer he crap on his own film? What if he genuinely likes it and is satisfied with and proud of end product? Should he crap on it because you didn’t like it? What if it is a contractual obligation that he maintains positive marketing of the film, should he go against this and risk being sued by a studio and it’s backers because you didn’t like it?
Btw, you realise that there isn’t a single director, writer, etc with a perfect record of perfect films out in their career.
And so what if he talks about his father? It’s his father. He has more ownership, and a relationship, than you ever will. If he chooses to use the connection to promote himself, that’s his prerogative, just as it’s your prerogative to ignore him.
That’s an awful thing to write : “used his father’s death to bring sympathy and press” ???? He was very close to his father, have some decency for God’s sake.
I agree. I follow him on twitter and suddenly there was no free speech when his crappy movie was out. it was a horrible movie and yes I do too think he surfs on his being Bowie’s son.
Wow there are a lot of insensitive and unnecessary comments here
There is no need to be so mad about a film. In my opinion it was not excatly good but entertaining and there was nothing horrible about it really either. Of course you can have your own opinion but it was not considered universally terrible either.
Honestly, as a WoW player, I thought the movie was good, even great at moments. Within 10 minutes, I realized this movie was made for players though – there is just too much lore, too many characters, and too much history to make a comprehensive film for mass audiences. My husband is not a WoW player, and he said it was okay, but hard to follow, while I found it very easy to. I suppose it could be compared to the Avengers movies – a universe I know nothing about, but would watch grown ass men get all giggly over a cameo and then speculate for months what it meant. So all in all, I think Jones did a great job with a near impossible task. To each his own.
Here’s a little help:
“Stenton” was David Bowie’s father’s middle name.
https://www.geni.com/blog/goodbye-ziggy-stardust-remembering-david-bowie-392054.html
Yeah, I remember back their story when she was diagnosed and then a follow-up story a year later on how she was doing. I thought after reading the story, what a lovely couple they were.
Congratulations Duncan, I’m sure Granddad is smiling somewhere.
Geez, Celebitchy isn’t supposed to make me cry. Stop that!
(Seriously – sounds like Duncan and Rodene could use some happiness. Congrats to them.)
Oh, man, that header pic got me choked up. What a way to start a Monday. Congratulations to the family. They deserve some joy in their lives this year.
Bowie will always be the one artist I simply adore. What a visionary, what an intelligent person, what a talent.
I wish nothing but the best to his wife and kids. And now a brand new Bowie baby. *Off to cry ugly in the corner
I’m the same.
Aww. I gave birth to my first child seven months after my father died. I named him after both my father and my husband’s dad.
Fantastic news. Congrats to both of them. And Duncan seems like such a great guy.
Congrats D! And wife! And Bowie isn’t dead, he’s just going through his spectral phase!
Love your take ! Can I borrow it ? Makes me feel so much better…
I haven’t checked in on Duncan’s twitter lately, but if people were going to his twitter to tell him the movie he worked on for 2+years is bad, I’m not surprised he responded negatively and cracked down on their “free speech”.
He’s one of the few people whom I believed when he said he was a hardcore gamer and really cared about the movie. It turned out badly, but what’s he supposed to say? “Sorry, I was wrong. It sucks. Don’t watch it. I’m going to forget I ever worked on it, please do the same.”
And criticizing him because he didn’t jump on twitter the minute the baby was born to announce it is really reaching. I don’t get that one at all.
This is gorgeous. What a great guy and a wonderful couple! Statistically about 21% of men leave their spouses when they are given a life-threatening diagnosis. To see someone instead hunkering down and marrying and caring for their partner is a lovely thing. I also loved Moon and I hope he does more movies (or TV) like it.
He’s 45? I would’ve guessed closer to 30.
Aw, best wishes to them all.