Smokey Robinson details affair with Diana Ross during first marriage

Smokey Robinson is opening up about his infidelities during his first marriage, which included a year-long affair with Diana Ross. 

Smokey who was married to his first wife, Claudette Rogers made the admission in an interview with The Guardian published Thursday, April 27. 

“I was married at the time. We were working together and it just happened,” Robinson, 83, told the outlet. “But it was beautiful. She’s a beautiful lady, and I love her right till today. She’s one of my closest people.”

The “Tears of A Clown” singer said he was “trying to help” Ross with her career when “it just happened.”

“I wasn’t going after her and she wasn’t going after me. It just happened,” he shared. 

According to Robinson, Ross ultimately ended the tryst out of guilt. 

“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,” he said. “And I did. I loved my wife very much.” 

Robinson also shared that his relationship with Ross, 79, helped him understand love. 

“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 explained. “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?”

Robinson was married to Rogers from 1959 until 1986. He wed his second wife, Frances Glandney, in 2002.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.