All We Know About Diana Ross’s Love Life As She Celebrates Her 82nd Birthday – And Why She Never Remarried After Ex-Husband Arne Naess
Diana Ross is 82, and the icon is still giving superstar in every sense. As fans celebrate the voice behind “Upside Down” and “I’m Coming Out,” her love life remains just as intriguing as her career, with romances that were glamorous, complicated, and, in one case, perhaps impossible to replace.
There was the husband who became part of her family story, the adventurer she never seemed to stop loving, a Motown romance that stayed emotional long after it ended, a powerful relationship shaped by ambition, and one rock-and-roll detour that still makes people do a double-take.
Robert Ellis Silberstein, the Husband Who Became Family
Diana Ross and music executive Robert Ellis Silberstein married in 1971, and their love story had a surprisingly playful start.
Things only got serious between them after he gave her red pajamas to match his own. Ross later said that was when they first realized they were truly a couple.
Their marriage quickly became a major chapter in her personal life, not just because they were one of the first high-profile interracial couples in entertainment, but because this was the relationship that helped shape her home life in such a major way.
Within a few years, they welcomed Chudney Ross and Tracee Ellis Ross, and Silberstein also adopted her eldest daughter, Rhonda Ross Kendrick.
They lived in a modern Beverly Hills mansion the singer had purchased, and the household included a chef, an English secretary, a housekeeper, a yardman, and a nanny.
Even after their marriage ended in 1977, this was not a relationship that seemed to turn bitter in public, as they reportedly have stayed friendly since.
But while Silberstein was the man who shared Ross’s family world, he was not the one she would later describe in the most bittersweet terms.
Arne Naess Jr., the Love She Never Seemed to Forget
When Ross married Norwegian shipping magnate and mountaineer Arne Naess Jr. in 1985, this was not just another headline romance. He became her second husband, and over time, their relationship came to feel like the emotional center of her love story.
In the happier years, Ross painted a picture of a romance that felt exciting and alive. A later profile described the way she once spoke about their time apart, making reunions feel fresh and romantic, even calling their life together a series of “very sexy honeymoons.”
But as with so many great love stories, the glow did not last forever. In a 1999 interview, the icon acknowledged that the marriage had reached a turning point.
“Sometimes change is not bad,” she said at the time. “Sometimes people come into your life, and then it’s time to make a change.”
She also did not sound especially hopeful about any reconciliation.
“I would always like to think there’s a chance,” Ross admitted, “but I have a feeling there’s not.”
Later accounts made it clear that the breakup itself was far from simple. Distance, tension, and painful disputes made things much more complicated than the fairy-tale image people once had of them.
But what keeps this chapter so compelling is the fact that even after their relationship ended in 2000, the singer still called him the “love of my life.”
Reflecting on what she had learned from their time together, she said, “That love is everlasting. And I love him now.”
Then came the loss that likely made her love even harder to leave behind. Naess died in a mountain climbing accident near Franschhoek, South Africa, in 2004 at the age of 66.
It is not hard to see why that would stay with Ross. A former husband is one thing. A former husband you still deeply love, who then dies suddenly, is something else entirely. That kind of loss tends to linger, and it may be one of the clearest reasons she never remarried.
Naess was only one chapter in a much bigger romantic history. Before and after him, there were other men who mattered too, and the next one came wrapped in Motown history.
Smokey Robinson, the Motown Romance That Stayed Close
Smokey Robinson eventually confirmed that he and Ross had once been involved, and what stands out most is not scandal but sincerity.
When asked if they had a “thing,” he said, “Yes, we did,” before explaining that the relationship lasted about a year.
He was just as open about how he remembered her.
“We were working together and it just happened. But it was beautiful,” he said. “She’s a beautiful lady, and I love her right till today. She’s one of my closest people.”
Robinson also explained why things ended: Ross stepped away because she knew his wife and understood that his feelings there had not gone away.
Regardless, he later reflected on love in even broader terms, saying, “I learned that we are capable of loving more than one person at the same time.”
Some relationships clearly do not fit into neat little boxes.
Even so, this was still not the romance that best explains why she never married again. For that, it helps to turn to a man who seemed to understand her goals as well as he understood her heart.
Berry Gordy, the Relationship Built Around Her Stardom
Berry Gordy’s relationship with Ross always seemed to carry something bigger than romance alone. There was affection, but there was also ambition, belief, and a shared understanding of what her future was supposed to look like.
He explained that he never wanted their personal relationship to interfere with her career.
“Diana and I are the same kind of people. She wanted what I wanted.”
“I loved her, but I wasn’t selfish enough to want to marry and take her out of what I knew she had to have. She had to have that stardom up there.”
That says a lot about Ross, and about the kind of presence she had in people’s lives. She was not someone men simply dated. She was someone they often seemed to recognize as extraordinary.
Gene Simmons, the Unexpected Rock-and-Roll Detour
If the other chapters feel soulful or bittersweet, the Gene Simmons one lands with a little more surprise.
He said their relationship began after Cher encouraged him to call Ross for help picking out a Christmas gift, and from there, things moved quickly.
He also made it very clear what drew him to Ross.
“I loved that she was such a strong woman who was confident in her own skin,” he said. “That’s the most seductive thing.”
This meant he left Cher for Ross, and he believes that the two singers never spoke again because of this.
These glimpses into her love life give some insight into why she did not need one more wedding to feel complete. By the time Ross reached this stage of life, she had already experienced several profound loves, and the one she seemed to hold closest never really left her heart.
