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Janis Hunter Gaye was the inspiration to several songs of her late husband’s during the years they were together
(Picture: Getty Images)Janis Hunter Gaye, the second wife of singer Marvin Gaye, has died aged 66, her family has announced.
Hunter Gaye passed away on Saturday at her home in Rhode Island of an undisclosed cause.
She became the inspiration to several songs of her late husband’s during the years they were together, after first meeting in 1973 during a recording session in Los Angeles, where he recorded his iconic album Let’s Get It On, released that year.
Gaye was married to Motown founder Berry Gordy’s sister at the time, and was 34 when he met 17-year-old Hunter Gaye. The pair eventually married in 1977 and had two children.
In 1974, the musician wrote the song Jan in dedication to Hunter Gaye, included in his 1974 album Marvin Gaye Live!, and his 1976 album I Want You was considered by songwriter Michael Eric Dyson to be “a romantic and erotic” tribute to her.
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Hunter Gaye later featured in background vocals for Gaye’s 1977 disco hit Got to Give It Up, which reached the top of the Billboard charts. The pair divorced in 1981.
Gaye was later shot and killed, aged 44, by his own father in 1984.
Hunter Gaye’s death comes after Gaye’s album What’s Going On was re-released this summer, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the project.
Hunter Gaye discussed her relationship with the famous musician in memoir After the Dance: My Life with Marvin Gaye, released in 2015.
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The late author was brought up as a foster child, and left a children’s home to live with her mother Barbara Hunter aged 17. Through her mother’s music connections, she met Gaye in the studio.
Daughter Nona Gaye gave tribute to her mother in a statement, following the news of her death.
She said: “From the time she met my father, she was exposed to the way he saw this world was aching, and she did her best to preserve his legacy as he was taken from us far too early.
“She took every moment to speak about every word and every note of his music, and she wanted to make sure everyone knew the man she fell in love with.”
The retired actress, 48, continued: “She was the most influential woman in my life and many others. I believe once you met my mother Jan, she wasn’t a woman you could ever forget.
“I will never get to see her again in this life, but know she’s in heaven with my father and a spokesperson for us in spirit.”