Smokey Robinson - Personal Life

Personal Life

Robinson married his fellow Miracles member Claudette Rogers in 1959. The couple had two children, daughter Tamla Robinson (b. 1969) and son Berry Robinson (b. 1968), named after Motown's first label and Berry Gordy respectively. Robinson has another son, Trey (b. 1984), with another woman, during his marriage to Claudette. After Robinson admitted this, he filed for legal separation and, later, divorce, which was granted in 1986. The Robinsons had separated once before, in 1974, and Robinson conducted an extramarital affair that became the concept of the song, "The Agony & The Ecstasy", later featured on A Quiet Storm.

Until the late sixties, Robinson was teetotal, drug-free, a vegetarian and a self-described "health nut". However, by the time he was in his late twenties, Robinson began using marijuana. By the seventies, he was also dabbling in cocaine; however, Robinson said he only used it for recreation. By the early eighties, however, he had begun developing a cocaine addiction. Following the deaths of his father and close label mate Marvin Gaye, the demise of his marriage and his own career troubles, Robinson developed an addiction to crack.

Robinson got clean in 1986 after visiting a church under the advice of longtime friend Leon Kennedy. Robinson has said that since the church visit, he has been clean and sober. In 1989, Robinson wrote the memoirs, Inside My Life, in which he opened up about his drug use. In 2004, Robinson married his second wife, Frances Robinson. The couple currently lives in Los Angeles. That same year, his company, SFGL Foods, launched a gumbo brand called "Smokey Robinson's The Soul is in the Bowl Gumbo", which was produced after the release of Robinson's gospel album, "Food for the Spirit".