After the Dance (ePub)

A searing memoir of love, drugs, sex, and old-school R&B, from the former wife of the legendary soul icon Marvin Gaye

Stuck in a foster home with an abusive caregiver, Janis Hunter found solace in her dreams of an encounter with Marvin Gaye—the soulful prince of Motown, with the seductive liquid voice, whose chart-topping, socially conscious album What's Going On had recently made him a superstar.

They met in February 1973. Despite a seventeen-year age difference and Marvin's marriage to the sister of Berry Gordy, Motown's founder, the enchanted teenager and the emotionally volatile singer began a scorching relationship. One moment Jan was a high school student, the next she was Marvin's soulmate. Their romance navigated the hippie high life of the seventies and took the couple from one adventure to another.

But the distractions and burdens of fame, the chaos of dysfunctional families, and the irresistible temptation of drugs complicated the love they shared. Marvin and Jan hurt each other, and their relationship descended into a dark place, but the attraction was too magnetic and the love was too strong to let go. Largely silent since Marvin's tragic death in 1984, Jan has at last opened up, sharing the moving, passionate story of one of music history's most fabled relationships. Unsparing in its honesty and insight, After the Dance reveals what it's like to be in love with an artistic genius, a man whose words and music have touched the world and made him a legend.