Nearly two months after the release of the Bob Marley biopic “One Love,” people are still talking about the fascinating story of Bob and his wife, Rita Marley.
Much of the discourse looked at their journey as a couple, which challenged conventional narratives of marriage. While the film never shied away from exposing Bob’s extramarital affairs and the subsequent offspring from those other loves, many applaud Rita’s resilience and strength in navigating their unconventional relationship.
British actor Kingsley Ben-Adir and Lashana Lynch portrayed Bob and Rita, and fans say the movie is a must-see.
An X user wrote, “The Bob Marley Movie was a beautiful tribute to Bob and Rita Marley.”
The Bob Marley Movie was a beautiful tribute to Bob and Rita Marley 🙏🏽
— Miss Reid Wash-Belly (@ReenaMcKenzie) March 29, 2024
Specifically about Rita, one person said, “I want a bio pic of her life man. Need her story to be told through her lens.”
I want a bio pic of her life man. Need her story to be told through her lens.
— Wangui (@_Wangui_) March 29, 2024
The film has sparked such an interest in Rita’s life that people are revisiting chapters from her 2004 biography, “No Woman No Cry: My Life With Bob Marley.” Now a new generation has used technology to explore her life with the reggae star.
“The girl on TikTok reading extracts from the Rita Marley book is my favorite person right now just because of how she reacts to every ‘shocking’ detail,” one person posted.
The girl on TikTok reading extracts from the Rita Marley book is my favorite person right now just because of how she reacts to every "shocking" detail.
— Kleos (@Khadz_J) March 29, 2024
LOL me done tell unno seh man anuh good something so I don't know what she was banking on discovering LMAO no sah
Take a deep dive into how Rita stayed married to Bob amid their extramartial affairs.
The Early Years: An Expanding Family
In 1966, Alfarita “Rita” Constantia Anderson tied the knot with Bob Marley. She was just 20, while he was 21. The two remained married until he died in 1981.
Their initial connection was through music; Rita led the singing trio the Soulettes, and Bob served as their vocal and recording coach. Though their relationship began as professional camaraderie, Bob’s relentless pursuit of her love transformed it into something deeper.
At the beginning of their courtship, Bob would send “letters through his friends” to tell Rita that he liked her. Eventually, they got married and he adopted her small daughter, Sharon, giving her his last name. The singer also had another daughter from a previous relationship with Cheryl Murray, named Imani Carole Marley.
A year later the two had their first child together, Cedella Marley. In 1968, they had another child, their first son, David Nesta aka “Ziggy.”
The couple’s last son together was Stephen Marley, who was born in April 1972. The same year, a month later, after Stephen was born, so was Bob’s namesake, Robert Marley. Robert was the son he had with a woman named Pat Williams. Three days after Robert was born, a woman named Janet Hunt gave birth to his son Rohan Marley.
A year after the three boys were born, the “One Love” singer would have another daughter with a woman named Janet Bowen named Karen Marley on Feb. 26, 1973.
“So what that he had children with other women? He was always truthful,” Rita said in 2012 about her husband, “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 never made the children feel uncomfortable, welcoming them into their lives and treating them all well. According to Robert, affectionately called Robbie, Bob also made sure that the children, all children including those he did not father, were loved and knew each other.
This would include Rita’s daughter with Owen “Ital Tacky” Stewart, a man who became her friend and allegedly “sympathetic toward” because he saw how Bob was treating her.
“Just about 1973, it was quite obvious that he’d started having women right in my face,” Rita said, noting his actions made it easier for her to date another man.
Stephanie Marley was born in 1974 and was later adopted by the megastar. After Bob’s death, Rita and Ital Tacky had another daughter named Serita Stewart in 1985.
Despite Stephanie being conceived outside of their marriage, Bob showed the same warmth and acceptance to her that Rita had shown him during times when he had children with other women.
Bob would have more children, year after year.
In a span of just six years, from 1975 to 1981, Bob Marley welcomed four children with four different women. Julian, was born in ’75 to Lucy Pounder; Ky-Mani in ’76 with Anita Belnavis; and Damien in ’78 with Canadian-born Jamaican model, Cindy Breakspeare.
In 1976, around the time of Ky-Mani’s birth, Bob and Rita were victims of a savage attack by seven gunmen in Jamaica. The pair had just finished rehearsing and Rita was in her car. One of the men pulled up and shot her in the head. Shots also blazed through the kitchen and hit Bob in his chest and arm. Both would survive. Bob would live for another five years.
Tragically, his youngest, Makeda Jahnesta, born in ’81 to Yvette Crichton, came into the world just weeks after Marley’s premature death from cancer.
Balancing Her Crown and Dealing With Disrespect
While Rita welcomed the children, she struggled with their mothers. In her book, as read by TikTokker @viruallydani she noted that there were times when she would go to another woman’s home to find her husband and be met with disrespect.
“The person we saw was Esther Anderson, leaning out over the upstairs porch,” Rita writes in her autobiography. “I said ‘Good morning. Is Bob there? Can I see Bob? I knew he was up there in the room with her.”
Rudely, the woman allegedly asked the wife, “What do you want?” and then asked, “Why you come here?”
Rita says she thought to herself that the woman must have been “crazy” talking to her like that but because she had the children with her, she tried to stay calm, asking again if her husband was up there.
“He’s sleeping,” the woman allegedly told her.
“Please wake him up for me. It’s important,” Rita recalls saying, only to be slammed with “Why don’t you leave him alone? Why won’t you let the man sleep?”
Rita said, “I lost my cool,” as the woman continued to disrespect her. Eventually, both women were shouting so much that Bob woke up and came outside.
“He came down and he said ‘What’s happening? Why you come down? You’re trying to create a scene?,”
According to Rita, there would be plenty of Esther Andersons coming in and out of her husband’s life.
“I guess the way I saw it was, he was not the man of their lives but their man for a time,” she wrote in her book. “I never made friends with any of them. I didn’t have to … their relationships with Bob were off the record and he kept them away from me for the most part.”
Damian Marley’s mother Cindy has been the most vocal of all of Bob’s mistresses. On what would have been his 79th birthday on Feb. 6, she posted about being one of his great loves and their travels — a week before the movie celebrating the love and career he shared with Rita debuted.
To help her deal with his other relationships, Rita said she had to see him more as a “loving brother” than a faithful husband.
In the book, she talked about finding out about Cindy, noting that Island Record’s head Chris Blackwell introduced her to Bob. According to Rita, according to the TikToker’s reading, Cindy, who at one time was Miss World 1976, was raised by a family who wanted her to marry well.
When she and her brother came to live in one of the company houses as a tenant, Bob got to know her and changed the trajectory of her life.
“Cindy lived there as Bob’s tenant. He was there. They were carrying on their relationship. I saw her but felt calm about it, knowing that I wasn’t going to make any strife,” Rita wrote. “If Bob wants that fine. If he likes her that’s his heart.”
Adding, “I remember her looking at me and she knew I knew what was going on … she … knew that he comes home to eat and see his wife and children.”
Eventually, Cindy became pregnant and she said she was “happy because Bob was happy.”
In other interviews, Rita talked about how he knew Bob wrote songs about Cindy and seethed with anger at times when he would ask her to sing background on them.
Cindy Breakspeare, Jamaican singer, model, entrepreneur, and media personality, born 67 years ago today on 24 Oct 1954. She was crowned Miss World in 1976. Bob Marley is said to have written the songs ‘Turn Your Lights Down Low’ and 'Waiting in Vain' about her. pic.twitter.com/3B4zEmaPZq
— Wayne Chen (@wcchen) October 24, 2021
She also resolved to what it was going to be, sinking into a position that made sure her needs were met.
“I didn’t think I should disrupt his relationships though sometimes the situation was painful,” Rita wrote. “I got tired of standing in the way and as long as I was respected, given whatever I needed financially and whatever the kids needed was there, I let him be.
“Another thing I’ll say for Bob is that he never allowed any of these women to act disrespectfully to me,” she added.
An Ending Fit For A King
At just 36, Bob Marley succumbed to acral lentiginous melanoma, an uncommon form of skin cancer that originated in his right foot’s big toe in 1977 and eventually metastasized.
In her memoir, Rita Marley acknowledged the efforts of Dr. Josef Issels, a German physician, for extending Bob’s life beyond the initial grim prognoses. However, as Bob’s condition deteriorated, he was airlifted to Miami to be with Rita and their family during his final days.
“Bob’s passing was a downfall for me,” Rita confessed, adding, “He was my strength, my man, my first heart.”
The “Redemption Song” singer’s funeral was an intimate hour-long service held for family and close friends at the Ethiopian Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity on Maxfield Avenue on May 21, 1981.
Bob’s processional to his internment was a celebration. Rita and the family made sure that the processional ran through all of Jamaica for the young and the old to say their goodbyes.
Also, as a final act of love and intimacy, ending their complicated relationship was a ganja stalk placed in his coffin by his widow, Rita, possibly symbolizing her desire to take care of his desires even to the end.
