‘I love her right till today’: Inside Smokey Robinson's relationship with Diana Ross as singer reflects on iconic affair
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Smokey Robinson, 83, recently opened up about his historic affair with Diana Ross, 79, and shared that the duo fell in love while he was still married to his first wife, Claudette Rogers, 80. He said that while he enjoyed a year-long relationship with The Supremes lead, neither of them pursued the other. The musician also called Ross one of his “closest” people during his interview with The Guardian.
Meanwhile, he agreed he would still consider himself a ‘sexual being’ at 83. “I still feel the same way, only I'm wiser with it. When you're young and you have those exploratory feelings about sex, you haven't lived long enough to know the value of it. So yes, I have a different attitude to it, but I still feel sexual. And I hope I'll always feel like that. OK, chronologically, I'm 83, but it's not really my age,” Robinson shared.
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‘It was beautiful’
Robinson and Ross reportedly started dating when the latter was an up-and-coming artist in the music industry and the former was still married to his now-former wife Claudette Rogers. In his recent interview, Robinson told The Guardian, “We were working together and it just happened. But it was beautiful. She's a beautiful lady, and I love her right till today. She's one of my closest people.”
Despite their passionate affair, Robinson said the duo decided to part ways as Ross knew Rogers and she was aware Robinson still loved his wife. “After we'd been seeing each other for a while, Diana said to me she couldn't do that because she knew Claudette, and she knew I still loved my wife. And I did. I loved my wife very much,” the singer said.
Robinson previously acknowledged the affair during an interview with VLAD TV. Speaking of his past relationship with Ross, he said, “Well, it lasted, uh, probably longer than it should. Cause I was married at the time. Yeah, that happened later. After I got married… That’s when that started.” The singer also revealed that both he and Ross grew up together in the same Detroit neighborhood but said he was unaware of the latter’s musical talent.
Robinson explained he only learned of Ross’ singing prowess once she moved away. The latter then asked Robinson to hear her girl group and to help them get signed to Motown before making history as The Supremes. Ross also opened up about her close bond with Robinson during a 1981 interview with Andy Warhol for Interview Magazine, Madame Noire noted.
“I lived on the north side of Detroit. Right down the street from me, there was a young man by the name of Smokey Robinson. I was very proud to live down the street from him because he was our only celebrity in town. He was singing with The Miracles,” Ross said at the time. The singer also wrote about her relationship with Robinson in her 1993 memoir, ‘Secrets of A Sparrow’. She said the duo was “the best of friends” and Robinson was “like a mentor” who “took a special interest” in her.
During the late ’60s and early ’70s Ross went on to have a relationship with Motown founder Berry Gordy, with whom she shares her eldest child, Rhonda Suzanne Silberstein. Ross married music executive Robert Ellis Silberstein in 1971 and had two daughters with him. Following their divorce, she started dating bassist and co-lead singer of Kiss, Gene Simmons.
The relationship ended after Simmons resumed his relationship with Cher. Ross married her second husband, Norwegian shipping magnate Arne Naess Jr, in 1986. Unfortunately, Naess fell to his death during a South African mountain climbing accident in 2004.
Smokey Robinson got married twice in his life
Robinson first tied the knot with his fellow Miracles member, Claudette Rogers, in 1959. The couple had two children together, son Berry (born 1968) and daughter Tamla (born 1971). He had a year-long affair with Diana Ross during his marriage to Rogers. Meanwhile, he fathered another child named Trey with another woman during his marriage. Following the birth of Trey, Robinson and Rogers filed for legal separation and eventually divorced in 1986. Robinson married his second wife Frances Gladney in May 2002 and the pair own a home in Pittsburgh, which they use as a winery.