Show business views artists as products.' She was said to be the driving force behind the legal action that netted her children and Marvin's adopted son $7.4 million last month over the song 'Got to give it Up' on which she sang backing vocals. Jan now lives in Rhode Island and is a grand mother to the son of her daughter Nona. Jan, who quit school to be with Gaye, remained close to the singer, even after divorce, and up to his death. She had spent her early years in a foster home and Gaillard fathered at lest sixteen other children with various women. Jan was born to the late jazz musician Slim Gaillard and Barbara Hunter. Marvin was married at the time to Anna Gordy, but he was divorced from her and married Jan in October 1977. Their son Frankie Christian was born a year later in Los Angeles. They began an affair almost immediately with Gaye wooing her by singing to her in his car and eighteen months later their daughter Nona was born in Washington DC. It was March 1973 and he was working on the multi-million selling Let's Get It On album. He had failed to turn up to sing at her birthday and apologized when they met a few weeks later. Janis Gaye met Marvin properly when she was 17. The Motown star himself was riddled with insecurity and spent much of his day in a drug-fueled haze although his creativity with songs such as 'What's Going On' and 'Let's Get it On' which was dedicated to Jan, ensured his stature.īut he could not be without Jan and invited her to record with him in the studio along with his elder brother Frankie. She said she feared she had disappointed him and her worries about losing him were never far away during their relationship. We praise him for his goodness and trust that next time he will bless us with a healthy boy. Marvin told her: 'Dear, these things happen. Within weeks she was pregnant, Marvin assuring her she was carrying a boy which Jan said, made her uncomfortable.
The couple smoked weed and snorted cocaine regularly and Marvin grew more reliant on her company, asking her to quit school so that they could spend more time together. She would often watch Marvin recording late at night and he would pick her up in the afternoons in his Lincoln or Cadillac. Their meeting lifted 'the darkness', she said. She describes herself as 'a bored high school junior' when she met him, while she said he was 'living the life of a bachelor' and trying to complete an album which he had been grappling with for three years. Tragedy: The funeral of Marvin Gaye in 1984, after he was shot dead by his father. He was 33 and married to Anna Gordy, the elder sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy, and she was 18 years older than the singer. He had been booked to play at her birthday party and apologized for not turning up. The foster child, who was one of jazz musician Slim Gaillard's 17 children, left a children's home to live with her mother Barbara Hunter and at the age of 17 and through her mother's music connections met Marvin in a studio.
Jan tells how she first developed a crush on Marvin when she was just eight and saw him singing on the TV show American Bandstand in 1964. He said: 'I've never met the woman.' A request to his agent for comment was not answered. O'Neal denied the account when he was asked about it by Daily Mail Online. I was afraid it would only lead to a fight. When he left, I didn't share the experience with Marvin. 'As he spoke with Marvin, he kept pressing ever so slightly. 'He made his move with great subtlety, but there was no mistaking the feel of his penis against my neck. 'The thrill took a different turn though when O'Neal stood behind my chair and pressed himself against my neck that was covered over by my long, wild hair. Jan said: 'He arrived at our table and shook hands with Marvin, who introduced him to me. Marvin told Jan her own beauty had captivated Ryan and nudged her that he was coming over to say hello. 'I told Marvin, 'If I can see that you're not sexualizing Ryan – just admiring him – then I hope you can see that I wasn't sexualizing Candice.
'O'Neal was an incredibly handsome movie star. I didn't see a physical attraction, but merely fascination.
She added: 'During that same lunch we noticed Ryan O'Neal…it was Marvin who seemed obsessed. Jan wrote that the lunch had been notable, first when Marvin spotted Candice Bergen and became entranced, describing her as 'gorgeous enough to stop traffic'.Īs Jan watched her, Marvin accused Jan of having sexual designs on her, but she told him she was simply bowled over by her beauty. She and Gaye had a troubled relationship, their problems fueled by drugs, when they chanced upon the actor in a bistro called Daisy in the late seventies. Creator: Marvin Gaye at Golden West Studios in 1974 in Los Angeles, California