Marvin Gaye’s ex-wife dead at 66 – Janis Hunter dies after inspiring Motown legend’s hit album

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Marvin Gaye's wife Janis Hunter Gaye has passed away at the age of 66, her family have confirmed.

She passed away on Saturday at her home in Rhode Island. A cause of death has not yet been revealed. 

Her daughter Nona Gaye released a statement, in which she called her mother unforgettable and said she worked tirelessly to preserve Marvin's legacy after his death.

However, Janis described her and Gaye having a troubled relationship, with their problems fuelled by drugs.

Sad news: Marvin Gaye's wife Janis Hunter Gaye passed away at the age of 66, her family have confirmed

Nona said: 'She was the most influential woman in my life and many others. I believe once you met my mother Jan, she wasn’t a woman you could ever forget.'

She added: 'Every day she was here it was about the love she felt for her husband, children, grandson, and the friends she met all over the world.'

Nola went on: 'From the time she met my father, she was exposed to the way he saw this world was aching, and she did her best to preserve his legacy as he was taken from us far too early.

'She took every moment to speak about every word and every note of his music, and she wanted to make sure everyone knew the man she fell in love with. 

Tragic: She passed away on Saturday at her home in Rhode Island. A cause of death has not yet been revealed

'I will never get to see her again in this life but know she’s in heaven with my father and a spokesperson for us in spirit.'

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Janis first met the Motown legend during a 1973 recording session in Los Angeles for his album Let's Get It On.

Marvin was 34 at the time and married to Anna Gordy, while Janis was just 17.

He went on to write the song Jan for her on his 1974 album and his 1976 album I Want You was described by music writer Michael Eric Dyson as 'a romantic and erotic tribute' to her.

Legacy: Her daughter Nona Gaye released a statement, in which she called her mother unforgettable and said she worked tirelessly to preserve Marvin's legacy after his death

Janis even featured on his 1977 track Got To Give It Up, on backing vocals.

They got married that same year and had two children together before their divorce in 1981.

Janis released a memoir in 2015, called After the Dance: My Life With Marvin Gaye about her relationship with the famous musician. 

Janis wrote 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.

First meetings: According to The Hollywood Reporter , Janis first met the Motown legend during a 1973 recording session in Los Angeles for his album Let's Get It On

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.

He had been booked to play at her birthday party and apologized for not turning up and they began an affair.

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. The couple had separated.

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.

Their meeting lifted 'the darkness', she said.

She would often watch Marvin recording late at night and he would pick her up in the afternoons in his Lincoln or Cadillac.

Family: They got married that same year and had two children together before their divorce in 1981

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.

Within weeks she was pregnant, Marvin assuring her she was carrying a boy which Jan said, made her uncomfortable. But she miscarried the child.

Marvin told her: 'Dear, these things happen. God gives and God takes away. We praise him for his goodness and trust that next time he will bless us with a healthy boy.'

She said she feared she had disappointed him and her worries about losing him were never far away during their relationship.

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.

Candid: Janis released a memoir in 2015, called After the Dance: My Life With Marvin Gaye about her relationship with the famous musician

But he could not be without Jan and invited her to record with him in the studio along with his elder brother Frankie.

While at their mountain top home in Topanga Canyon, California, they spent many happy days alone with their two dogs. Marvin taught her to drive, buying her a black Porsche 911.

He rejected offers to perform live due to his insecurity and as Let's Get it On became one of Motown's fastest selling songs, he said he would not tour. or do any interviews. He wanted freedom with Jan from the world of show business.

He told her: 'I'm an artist. I'm not made for show business. Show business views artists as products.'

He once pointed to a homeless man living in a cardboard box and said he envied his freedom and lack of responsibility.

Despite Marvin feeling constricted by the demands of record company executives and the needs of fans, the couple enjoyed the typical show business life mixing with stars such as Mick Jagger. Ray Charles, Rick James, Michael Jackson, Bob Marley, Richard Pryor,Stevie Wonder and Jane Fonda.

Issues: She described how her and Gaye had a troubled relationship, with their problems fuelled by drugs

Andy Warhol wanted to paint a portrait of the Motown man, but Marvin failed to follow it through with the artist.

Jan records Marvin's love and respect for his parents and his closeness particularly to his mother Alberta, who she said had a sweet disposition.

Marvin loved his father, but went from idolizing the preacher to despising him, she said. Marvin Sr regularly beat his son and appeared jealous of his success.

Jan bore two children to the singer, a daughter Nona whose arrival thrilled him despite his earlier wishes to father a boy, and then a son Frankie. Marvin had an adopted child Marvin III with his first wife.

But after the birth of Nona, Jan reveals she struggled with her weight and Marvin disliked her stretch marks. He often bullied her and picked on her.

The singer became moody, duplicitous, selfish and suspicious as drugs became a daily requirement for him and after their second child, Anna Gordy filed for divorce.

Mean: But after the birth of Nona, Jan reveals she struggled with her weight and Marvin disliked her stretch marks. He often bullied her and picked on her

Bizarrely, he was excited about 'warfare' and had to prove his manhood by taking on the legal battle against his first wife.

He began rejecting Jan and went long periods without an interest in sex with her. He even had a bizarre excitement in seeing Jan be unfaithful and once tried to pair her off with the soul singer Frankie Beverly by booking adjoining hotel adjoining rooms and then bursting in to find them smoking weed.

Marvin, however, made Jan his bride after she and the singer were nearly killed in a road accident that claimed the life of their driver.

Marvin escaped unscathed, but Jan was injured and as she was rushed to hospital, he proposed to her and urged her to 'stay alive baby.'

But his lifestyle was threatened with demands from the IRS and he was advised to perform live on more stages to keep his homes and studio.

The financial pressures led to bitter rows between them and the couple started to drift apart, despite their wedding with a honeymoon in Hawaii where they were joined by members of his family and entourage.

Troubled: They later reconciled, but split again and she could no longer trust his sanity and her own confidence had been shattered as their love went into free fall

He began picking on Jan on the beach, saying her breasts were sagging even though she was in her twenties and insulting her further by accusing her of 'b****ing'.

Later, Jan decided to have an affair with Beverley, but she could not admit it to Marvin despite his repeated questioning of her.

In one row, Marvin picked up a knife and held it over Jan's throat. She took her children and fled. They later reconciled, but split again and she could no longer trust his sanity and her own confidence had been shattered as their love went into free fall.

She was heavily reliant on drugs and overdosed on cocaine in one session and had to be rushed to hospital.

During her estrangement, she dated Teddy Pendergrass and on one night out, a jealous Marvin sat outside a restaurant they were in and stalked them.

Tragedy: The funeral of Marvin Gaye in 1984, after he was shot dead by his father. He was just 44.

Jan reveals she snorted cocaine with Pendergrass and was at the same time sleeping with Beverly and believes she was acting out her anger against her husband.

Lawyers were called in, but Jan flew to England to after Marvin called her saying he needed her by his side.

But he had begun an affair with a Dutch woman Jan described as a groupie and he was also spending time with a 63-year-old unnamed English aristocratic lady at her country seat.

Despite attempts to reconcile, Jan could not take any more of Marvin's heavy drug addiction and his ongoing relationship with the Dutch woman.

She filed for divorce in January 1982 and the marriage ended a few months later.

They briefly re-ignited their relationship, but it could never be revived despite Jan joining him on his tour of the US in 1983 to support him. He wrongly accused her of sleeping with his bass player.

They grew apart even further and contact became less and less. Marvin lived in the LA house he had bought his parents.

Marvin was killed three years later, after being shot by his father in Los Angeles following an argument, at age 44.

Janis is survived by her daughter Nona, son Frankie, sister Shawnn, brother Mark and grandson Nolan.

Family: Janis is survived by her daughter Nona, son Frankie, sister Shawnn, brother Mark and grandson Nolan