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What to Know About Smokey Robinson’s Wife, Frances Gladney, and 3 Kids
Get to know the Robinsons before Smokey co-hosts A Motown Christmas on NBC.
Meet the Robinsons! Smokey Robinson, whose life and work will be honored during NBC's A Motown Christmas, is the proud father of three. Get to know his whole family, below.
How Smokey Robinson met his wife Frances Gladney
Smokey Robinson and his second wife, interior designer Frances Gladney, married in 2002.
"She was from Pittsburgh, but I met her in Los Angeles. We’ve known each other for more than 30 years now but, for a long time, we were just two people among a group of friends," he explained to the Pittsburgh Quarterly.
The pair went from friends to something more because of a fateful connection.
"For years, Frances and I often talked on the phone, but I wasn’t thinking about being romantic with her. I’m 12 years older, but we share the same birthday, February 19th. Then, one year, all of our friends got together and said, 'We’re going to take you both out for your birthday'...one of the items on the menu was coconut shrimp...and it turned out that I loved it. Frances loved it, too. A week or so later...Frances and I were on the phone laughing and talking...when I said, 'Hey, let’s go get some coconut shrimp.'"
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"That was the beginning for us, and I tell her all the time, “You do realize that I married you because of coconut shrimp,'” he added.
Robinson met his first wife, Claudette Rogers Robinson. as a teens in Detroit. They began their careers together, breaking through as Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, with Claudette being a member of the famed Motown vocal group.
As she explained to AfroPop, Claudette joined the ensemble with Robinson and three other members when her brother, Emerson "Sonny" Rogers (who had been in the group as well) left to join the army. After an unsuccessful audition for a record company in 1957, Robinson handed a notebook full of original songs to producer Berry Gordy. Due to success of The Miracles, Gordy was able to found Motown Records.
As the co-founder of The Miracles, Claudette is known as the First Lady of Motown. She's also the subject of one of Robinson's most famous songs, "My Girl."
Following Robinson's departure from the group, The Miracles re-invented themselves in the 1970s and scored hits like "Love Machine." Robinson and Rogers divorced in 1986. The very next year, Robinson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist, but Rogers and the rest of the band were added in 2012.
Smokey Robinson is a father of three
Robinson and Rogers married in 1959 and welcomed two children together: daughter Tamla Claudette Robinson, named after Tamla Records (the original name of Motown) and Berry William Borope Robinson, named after Gordy.
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Berry was born in 1968 via surrogate. "When I was just 19, Claudette and I got married, and were soon trying to have babies," he told the Pittsburgh Quarterly. "We had seven miscarriages before my first son was born, and he was born to a surrogate mother. So yeah, it was rough," he told The Independent.
"Later, the doctor who helped us find the surrogate built a brace for Claudette to help her carry a new pregnancy to term. When it was time, they removed it and my daughter, Tamla, was born [in 1971]," he added to the Quarterly.
Robinson's relationship with Tamla inspired him to create a holiday called Father Daughter Day. “As an honored father of six beautiful daughters, the father/daughter relationship is one I have cherished for decades,” he said in a statement, continuing, “There are many different kinds of families today, and we know that all parental relationships are important to the healthy development of children, but the father/daughter bond is unique and one that is near to my heart.”
In 1984, Robinson welcomed a son, Trey, with his on-and-off girlfriend Kandi.
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A Motown Christmas airs this December on NBC: how to watch
The two-hour event is set for Wednesday, December 11 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on NBC and will be available the next day on Peacock.
