David Bowie’s widow Iman discussed the frustrations of living with his legacy, nearly three years after his death, saying that fans who wanted too much proximity and businesses that wanted to profit continued to make things difficult for his family.

“People take pictures of me in the street, and say [while touching her arm], ‘I am so sorry for your loss,’” Iman told Net-A-Porter in a new interview. “I’m like, ‘Don’t touch me. You just took pictures of me, how can you be sorry?’ I get the fans’ grief, but it’s not the same. They have lost someone they look up to; we have lost a husband and a father.”

She added that sometimes she doesn't "want people to know how sad I am. People say to me, ‘Oh, you’re so strong.’ I’m not strong – I am just trying to keep it together.”

The former model, who was married to Bowie for 24 years, insisted she’d never remarry. “I mentioned my husband the other day with someone, and they said to me, ‘You mean your late husband?’" she said. "I said, no, he is always going to be my husband. I do feel very lonely. But do I want a relationship? I can’t say never, but no, not now.”

The effect of Bowie’s fame recently landed on their daughter Lexi, after Iman shared some pictures of her online to mark her 18th birthday. “And every agency, every designer, called me to say, ‘If she wants to, we’d love for her to model for us,’” she recalled. “I said, ‘No, she doesn’t.' … I know why they wanted to her to model – it’s because she is David Bowie’s daughter.”

She added that she’d advised Lexi that “this can all wait, it isn’t going anywhere. Have a life that is private while you can, because one day soon it is going to be public, so enjoy this.”

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