Smokey Robinson opened up about his numerous affairs in his younger days, including one with Diana Ross.
In an interview with The Guardian on April 27, Robinson shared that he had an affair with Ross for about a year while he was married to his first wife, Claudette Rogers. The two were married from 1959 to 1986.
“I was married at the time,” Robinson said. “[Ross and I] were working together and it just happened. But it was beautiful.”
“She’s a beautiful lady, and I love her right til today,” Robinson said. “She’s one of my closest people. She was young and trying to get her career together. I was trying to help her. I brought her to Motown, in fact. I wasn’t going after he and she wasn’t going after me. It just happened.”
Robinson then explained how their relationship ended and what that experience taught him about love.
“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,” Robinson said. “And I did. I loved my wife very much.”
“I learned that we are capable of loving more than one person at the same time,” Robinson said. “It has been made taboo by us, by people.”
