Smokey Robinson Explains Inspiration Behind 1975 Song Believed to Be About His Affair with 'Babe' Diana Ross

Mar. 15, 2025

Smokey Robinson in February 2023; Diana Ross in June 2022.Photo: David Fisher/Shutterstock, Joseph Okpako/WireImage

DidSmokey Robinsonwrite “The Agony and the Ecstasy” about his affair withDiana Ross?

“As a songwriter I could not possibly have experienced everything I’ve written about, and that song seemed like a good idea because so many people were in that situation,” Robinson told the outlet.

“The Agony and the Ecstasy” features musings on a romance clearly occurring outside of one’s preexisting relationship. “What’s it all about this crazy love? / How did our two worlds entwine? / How do I fit into your life / How did you get into mine? / I belong to someone else we know,” he sings on the track, later adding that the two people in question now pay a “forbidden lover’s price.”

Responding to a direct question about Ross being the woman who inspired the song, Robinson added, “Ha ha! I’ve known Diana Ross since she was 8 years old, man! She’s precious to me. She’s my longest living friend. Oh yeah, she’s my babe.”

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Smokey Robinson and Diana Ross in New York City in April 2013.Walter McBride/Corbis via Getty

The Miracles vocalist previously opened up about his affair with the Supremes frontwoman in a 2023 interview withThe Guardian, noting that their romance lasted “about a year” during his marriage to Rogers, now 82.

“I was married at the time. [Ross and I] were working together and it just happened. But it was beautiful,” said Robinson. “She’s a beautiful lady, and I love her right til today. She’s one of my closest people. She was young and trying to get her career together.”

“I was trying to help her,” continued the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member. “I brought her to Motown, in fact. I wasn’t going after her and she wasn’t going after me. It just happened.”

Smokey Robinson in Los Angeles in August 2024.Harmony Gerber/Getty

Harmony Gerber/Getty

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He then explained how the affair ended. “After we’d been seeing each other for a while, Diana said to me she couldn’t do that because she knew Claudette, and she knew I still loved my wife,” he said. “And I did. I loved my wife very much.”

Robinson was married to Rogers from 1959 to 1986. He married his second wife, Frances Glandney, in 2002. Meanwhile, Ross was married to Robert Ellis Silberstein from 1971 to 1977, and Arne Naess Jr. from 1985 to 2000.

source: people.com