EP 59: Jan Gaye

Life had never been easy for Jan but growing up listening to Marvin Gaye's sweet soulful voice on the record player came with daydreams of a promising future. So when the opportunity came to meet the man of her dreams there was no way Jan wasn’t going to seize the opportunity. She didn’t care that Marvin was still legally married or about their 17 year age difference and neither, it seems, did Marvin.

Before long the pair were inseparable and with Jan as his muse, Marvin began making the sexiest music of his career. But as their relationship progressed Jan was quickly learning that not only was Marvin tormented with deep-seated insecurities, he was also a man who believed that to create great art one must suffer. Thus began a wild roller-coaster of great highs and horrific lows that Jan found inescapable. Plagued with her own insecurities, the main one being the thought of losing the man she had so longed to be with, Jan began putting her own feelings to the side in order to please his. “I wanted to give him the children that he asked for. I wanted to let him have his flings, even if I had to bite my lip later and cry when he was away. I gave in when I probably shouldn’t have. I danced along that dangerous line of being accommodating but not giving in too much, and I was often left alone and hurting.”

Tune in to hear Lynx tell Chanty all about Jan and Marvin’s time together and make sure you pick up Jan’s incredible must-read memoir After the Dance.

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