Bob Marley’s hit song, “One Love,” was more than just a hit single for the International reggae artist, but an anthem that embodied his way of life. No one knew this more than his wife and the other seven women who became mothers of his children.
Between the eight women, Rita Marley, Cheryl Murrah, Janet Bowen, Lucy Pounder, Janet Hunt, Anita Belnais, Cindy Breakspeare, and Pat Williams, the Jamaican icon fathered 13 children.
Alfarita “Rita” Constantia Anderson and Bob were married in 1966 when she was 20 and he was 21. The two met when Rita formed a singing trio called the Soulettes and had worked with Bob as a vocal and recording coach. They were work friends, but through his persistent courting, it became something else.
The “Redemption Song” singer was “sending his letters through his friends, not by himself, through his friends, to say that he liked me and wanted to come over and talk,” said Rita in an interview with Rolling Stone.
The two fell in love, never knowing that their bond would create Caribbean royalty.
In addition to becoming his wife and queen, she also introduced Bob to Rastafarianism, the religious practice that he embraced for the rest of his life.
Cheryl Murray, Mother of Imani Carole Marley
Both Rita and Bob had children before they were married.
His first daughter, Imani Carole Marley was born on May 22, 1963, to him and her mother Cheryl Murray. He was 18 at the time. Little is known about Imani or her mother. Imani lives a low-key life in Atlanta and is not listed as one of the Marley children on his official website.
However, she is linked to many in Bob’s circumference, and when Bunny Wailer died in 2021, she posted her condolences on social media, writing, “My Uncle Livi…..died this morning. The last of the original Wailers has gone to join that everlasting jam session.”
The member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority is very private, posting only a few pictures of a woman she calls “Mom” and her “Girl” on her Instagram.
Rita Marley, Mother of Sharon Marley, Cedella Marley, Ziggy Marley, Stephen Marley and Stephanie Marley
Like Bob, Rita also had a little daughter from a previous relationship before getting married. Her name was Sharon, and she was born on Nov. 23, 1964. When she was 2 years old, Bob legally adopted her, gave her his last name, and loved her dearly. The identity of Sharon’s biological father has not been made public.
After the pair bonded over music and married, they started to build their own family: Cedella (56); David Nesta aka “Ziggy” (55); and Stephen Robert (50).
Rita had one additional daughter, Serita Stewart, with Jamaican soccer player Owen “Ital Tacky” Stewart, while married to Bob in 1974. Like Sharon, Bob also adopted the young girl and included her into his family.
According to the wife, she and her husband had an understanding about love, their relationships and the children that came from them.
In 2012, she said, “Bob wanted me to have a baby each year, but he also wanted me to continue being a backing singer in his band and to go on the road with him. At the time she said she knew he had “eight he had with other women.”
“So what that he had children with other women? He was always truthful,” Rita continued about Marley, “he always told me when another child was on the way. He would even bring the babies to me when they were born, and sometimes I would even bring them up myself.”
Rita was later accused of forging Bob Marley’s signature to enable lawyers to divert some $9 million of the estate’s assets. She also suffered criticism from the mothers who had “different opinions” about her fighting for control of Bob’s estate. He had no will and she once claimed that she had to solicit money and take donations from people to buy back Bob’s name and likeness.
Pat Williams, Mother of Robert Nesta Marley
Little is known about Pat Williams, Bob’s third mother of his children. However, Robert, who is affectionately called “Robbie” was born in 1972 and keeps a very low profile. Careful to make sure attention stays on his father’s legacy — and hardly ever sharing anything about his mother’s life — he said that in addition to his father being quiet, patient, and strict, he was also a teacher and a father to all, not just his children, emphasizing how he made sure that all of his children knew each other.
Janet Hunt, Mother of Rohan Marley
Rohan and Robbie were born months apart by two different women. And just like Pat Williams, Rohan’s mother, Janet Hunt lives a life of obscurity, shielding her life from all of the intrusiveness of Bob’s celebrity status.
Rohan is a former University of Miami football player and now a serial entrepreneur. He also has a quiver full of children like his father. He has a daughter named Eden (1994) and a son Nico (1995) with his first wife Geraldine Khawly, his college sweetheart whom he married in 1993. The duo divorced in 1996.
After his divorce from Khawly, he was in a relationship with hip-hop superstar Lauryn Hill. With the chart-topper, he had five children, Zion, 27, Selah, 25, Joshua Omaru, 23, John Nesta, 21, and Sara, who turned 16 earlier this year. Zion is most known for being the subject of Hill’s megahit song “To Zion.”
Janet Bowen, Mother of Karen Marley
Like her brothers, Robbie and Rohan, Karen’s mother Janet Bowen has also lived a life away from the Marley name and brand. Karen was born in London, England, in 1973 as a result of a whirlwind romance between her mom and dad.
Her mom, who was affectionately called “Janet from England” by the artist, allowed Karen to be raised in Jamaica with the rest of the Marley children. As a result, she also looks to Rita and her grandmother on the island as her maternal influences.
Lucy Pounder, Mother of Julian Marley
Julian Marley, born in 1975, took after many of his siblings and his famous father and became a musician, songwriter, and producer.
Barbados-born Lucy Pounder lived in London, where she raised her son, Julian. According to Julian, Pounder raised him modestly, allowing him to go to public school, and raising him around other Caribbean people in the United Kingdom.
While the custodial parent, Pounder was generous with allowing Julian to visit his family in Jamaica every year, and by the age of 17 he moved to the island to pursue a music career and to learn the family’s faith.
Julian is a Grammy award-winning artist who not only lost his father at a young age to cancer, but also lost his daughter Caveri when she was 11 years old to the horrible disease in 2019. Now, he spends his time advocating for the use of medical marijuana for children and research surrounding cannabis treatment to cure the disease.
Anita Belnavis, Mother of Ky-Mani Marley
Outside of Rita, none of Bob’s children’s mothers had a celebrity following — except for Anita Belnavis. She was a Jamaican table tennis champion who gave birth to his son Ky-Mani Marley in 1976. She dated the reggae singer from 1975 to 1976.
Belnavis says they selected her son’s name from an East African tradition and it means, “Adventurous Traveler.”
Like his mom, Ky-Mani for a short time was an athlete, playing American football for some time in his teens.
She was very focused on exposing her son to the arts, making sure that he had piano, guitar, and trumpet lessons when he was young. He able to secure a spot playing the trumpet in his school’s band. A child of the times, Ky-Mani also was a rapper and DJ as a teen.
These skills, which she helped lay the foundation for, helped set in motion his career in music, earning him a Grammy nomination in 2002.
Cindy Breakspeare, Mother of Damian Marley
Damian Marley’s mother, Cindy Breakspeare, the 1976 Miss World, is the most outspoken women that Bob was in a relationship outside of his wife.
One of Breakspeare’s claims to fame is that many of the love songs on the “Exodus” album were written about her.
Clear on their love, she wrote on Instagram, “Bob, on what would have been your 79th Birthday, I celebrate the incredible impact you’ve had globally, cherish our amazing son Damian, and reminisce about the beautiful times we shared—from 56 Hope Road to your mother’s home in Delaware and Miami, New York, Oakley Street in London, The Bahamas, Trinidad, and beyond.”
Adding, “The memories are countless, but our love for you is endless. Happy Birthday to the people’s hero, loved and revered by all.”
The Canadian-born Jamaican moved to Jamaica when she was 5. Before becoming Miss World, she won the Miss Jamaica Body Beautiful title while working at the Spartan Health Club.
She said that being white and Miss Jamaica shocked a lot of people.
“When I went to Iceland, I realized I wasn’t white and when I went to Nigeria, I wasn’t Black,” she said. “They were expecting someone of darker complexion. What that did, I think, was really highlight for me the uniqueness of the Jamaican experience and what it means to be Jamaican. It’s not a color thing. It’s a cultural thing and when you see the way Jamaica culture has taken over the world, to be Jamaican is the coolest thing.”
Yvette Crichton, Mother of Makeda Jahnesta Marley
The last of Bob’s children is Makeda Jahnesta Marley, who was born in 1981 in Miami to Yvette Crichton. Crichton gave birth to Makeda less than three weeks after her famous father died.
There also seemed to be no tension between Crichton and Rita, and Makeda was allowed to stay with her frequently. She is a graduate of Coatesville Area Senior High School & West Chester University.
In 2010, Makeda, who currently lives in Philadelphia, was placed on probation for seven years for growing marijuana in her home and risks the possibility of a 15- to 59-month state prison sentence if she violates the terms of her release.
Find out more about Bob Marley’s life and his children in the new autobiographical movie, “One Love,” in theatres now.
