Chrissie Hynde (born Christine Ellen Hynde, 7 September 1951, Akron, Ohio) is an American rock musician, best known as the leader of the band The Pretenders. She is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist, and has been the only constant member of the band throughout its history. Hynde has a contralto vocal range.

Daughter of a part-time secretary and a Yellow Pages Manager, Hynde graduated from Firestone High School in Akron, admitting "I was never too interested in high school. I mean, I never went to a dance, I never went out on a date, I never went steady. It became pretty awful for me. Except, of course, I could go see bands, and that was the kick. I used to go to Cleveland just to see any band. So I was in love a lot of the time, but mostly with guys in bands that I had never met. For me, knowing that Brian Jones was out there, and later that Iggy Pop was out there, made it kind of hard for me to get too interested in the guys that were around me. I had, uh, bigger things in mind."

Hynde experimented with hippie counterculture, psychotropic drugs, eastern mysticism, and vegetarianism. Hynde joined a band called Sat. Sun. Mat. while attending Kent State University’s Art School for three years. Hynde was on the campus during the infamous Kent State shootings. She knew Jeffrey Miller, one of the fatalities.

Hynde also developed an interest in the magazine NME when she wasn’t waitressing or working various other jobs to support herself, eventually saving enough money for the move from Ohio to London in 1973. With her art background, Hynde landed a job in an architectural firm but left after eight months. It was then that Hynde met rock journalist Nick Kent and landed a writing position at NME. However, this proved not to last and Hynde later found herself working at Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s then-unknown clothing store, SEX, where Hynde was summarily fired for a fight with a customer in which Hynde was hit with a bell from the store. Hynde then made a fruitless attempt to start a band in France before her return to Cleveland in 1975.

Hynde resurfaced in France in 1976 for another stab at forming a band. She found her way back to London in the midst of the punk movement. In late 1976, Hynde responded to an advertisement in Melody Maker for band members and attended an audition for the band that would become 999. Jon Moss of Culture Club fame and Tony James of Generation X also auditioned. During this period she became closely associated with the Sex Pistols, and spent a good deal of time with Sid Vicious. She commented in an early 1990s interview that she "almost" became "Mrs. Vicious" in the late 1970s. Later, Hynde tried to start a group with Mick Jones from The Clash. After the band failed to take flight, Malcolm McLaren placed her as a guitarist in Masters of the Backside, but she was asked to leave the group just as the band became The Damned. After a brief spell in the Johnny Moped band, Mick Jones had invited Hynde to join his band on their initial tour of Britain. Hynde’s recollection of that period: "It was great, but my heart was breaking. I wanted to be in a band so bad. And to go to all the gigs, to see it so close up, to be living in it and not to have a band was devastating to me. When I left, I said, ‘Thanks a lot for lettin’ me come along,’ and I went back and went weeping on the underground throughout London. All the people I knew in town, they were all in bands. And there I was, like the real loser, you know? Really the loser."

Hynde opened a vegan restaurant in Akron, Ohio, in 2007 called The VegiTerranean. The restaurant, which opened in November, 2007, serves fusion Italian-vegetarian food. The restaurant’s head chef is James Scot Jones, who is good friends with Hynde. Prior to the restaurant’s opening, on 15 September 2007, she performed three songs at the restaurant with an acoustic guitarist, Adam Seymour, the lead guitarist of The Pretenders.