Motown legend Smokey Robinson has decided to share some secrets with his fans.
In an interview with The Guardian on Thursday, the multi-Grammy award winning singer and songwriter revealed he had an affair with Motown sweetheart Diana Ross for “about a year” while married to his first wife, Claudette Rogers.
“I was married at the time. [Ross and I] were working together and it just happened. But it was beautiful,” Robinson, 83, told the outlet.
“She’s a beautiful lady, and I love her right til today. She’s one of my closest people. She was young and trying to get her career together,” he continued.
“I was trying to help her. I brought her to Motown, in fact. I wasn’t going after her and she wasn’t going after me. It just happened.”
He then explained how they ended the affair.
“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,” the “Tracks of My Tears” singer said. “And I did. I loved my wife very much.”
Robinson went on to say that his relationship with Ross taught him that love was much more complex than he realized.
“You asked me what happened when we get older, and we get wisdom in life. I learned that we are capable of loving more than one person at the same time.”
He added, “It’s not because one person isn’t worthy or they don’t live up to what you expect – it has to do with feelings. If we could control love, nobody would love anybody. Nobody would take that chance.”
Robinson was married to Rogers from 1959 to 1986. He married his second wife, Frances Glandney, in 2002. Meanwhile, Ross was married to Robert Ellis Silberstein from 1971 to 1977, and Arne Naess Jr. from 1985 to 2000.
In 1965, she started a relationship with Robinson’s friend and Motown chief Berry Gordy. It lasted several years, and she gave birth to their daughter, actress Rhonda Suzanne Silberstein, in 1971.
Ross hasn’t commented on Robinson’s admission about their affair but considering they’re still good friends, we’re sure he gave her the heads up. The lead singer of the Supremes is still performing and having a successful solo career.
Robinson just dropped his first studio album in nearly 10 years, GASMS.
As far as the affair, some fans say this is something he could have kept to himself.
