Smokey Robinson Reveals Affair with Diana Ross: 'She's a Beautiful Lady'
When Smokey Robinson announced his most recent album, gasms, social media users were both shocked and amused by the album's title and salacious tracklist. Gasms features song titles like, "How You Make Me Feel," "I Wanna Know Your Body" and "I Fit In There."
However, in a new interview with The Guardian, the 83-year-old crooner said that even at his age he still "feels sexual."
It’s important for him to show that older people are still sexual beings, he told the publication. “When I hear of grandfathers and grandmothers who are 60 years old being talked about as if you’re counting them out and putting them out to pasture, I think it’s ridiculous. This is a new era of life," he said, "I feel 50.”
In the interview, Robinson also revealed that he had a romantic affair with fellow Motown singer Diana Ross early in her career. "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 said that the relationship ultimately ended on good terms. "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 new revelations have social media users talking again.
And it seems like the album is impacting a younger generation.
Robinson said that the affair was a learning experience, "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. And it has been made taboo by us. By people."
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. Why would you put your heart out there for somebody to be able to hurt you like that and make you able to have those feelings?"
