Diana Ross Biography, Age, Family, Husband, Children, Movies, Wiki, & Net Worth

Diana Ross has appreciated success as a musician both in the United States and the United Kingdom. She is a Golden Globe-winning actress. With a combined sale of over 100 million records across the globe, Ross has received a respectable and admirable position in the music industry. One of the few female artists in her field to have given more than 70 hit singles, Diana Ross is one of the few artists who have two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In spite of having roadblocks and personal setbacks, a tough and hardworking Ross never let anything disturb her career that spanned four decades.

Diana Ross began her musical career as a lead singer for the group, ‘The Supremes’, after which an ambitious Ross left the group to peruse a solo career of her own. She also made a presence in many films and television shows. She has established herself as one of the most legendary and iconic female musicians of all time and inspired a generation of musicians and singers including, Beyoncé Knowles.

Wiki/Biodata

Birth Name	Diane Ernestine Earle Ross
Nick Name	Diana Miss Ross
Age	(as in 2023) 79 years
Religion	Baptist
Sun Sign/Zodiac Sign	Aries
Birth Place	Detroit, Michigan, United States
Date of Birth	26 March 1944
Nationality	American
Residence	Los Angeles, California, United States
Home Town	Detroit, Michigan
Hobbies	Not Known
Family
Mother’s Name	Ernestine Ross
Father’s Name	Fred Ross, Sr.
Brother	• Fred Ross, Jr. (Younger Brother) • Arthur ‘T-Boy’ Ross (Younger Brother) (Songwriter and Composer) • Wilbert “Chico” Ross (Younger Brother) (Dancer)
Sister	• Barbara Ross-Lee (Older Sister) (Physician) • Rita Ross (Younger Sister) (Schoolteacher)
Relatives	• Rev. William Edward Ross (Paternal Grandfather) (Baptist Minister) • Ida D. J. W. Snead (Paternal Grandmother) • Rev. M. William Moten (Maternal Grandfather) • Isabella Collins (Maternal Grandmother)
Boyfriends/Affairs
Affairs/Boyfriends	• Warren Beatty – As per the American publications, she has had an affair with the acting legend Warren Beatty. • John Taylor – Diana Ross is rumored to have hooked up with English musician, John Taylor, who is the co-founder of the music group Duran Duran, in the past. • Smokey Robinson – According to rumors, Ross had an affair with singer and record producer, Smokey Robinson in the early phase of her music career. It has been claimed that this affair took place before she started going out with Gordy. • Eddie Kendricks – Diana is rumored to have hooked up with singer and songwriter Eddie Kendricks, who was a member of the vocal group The Temptations. His fellow band member Otis Williams had told the press that Kendricks had pursued her. • Berry Gordy (1965-1970) – In 1965, Diana started dating the founder and CEO of Motown Records, Berry Gordy. Their romantic relationship took their professional relationship to another level. Their relationship came to an end towards the end of 1970. However, by then, she was pregnant with his child. She gave birth to their daughter Rhonda Ross Kendrick in August 1971. Rhonda didn’t know that Gordy was her father until she reached the age of 13. Until then, she used to call Gordy Uncle B.B. • Richard Gere (1966) – According to reports, Diana had a short-lived affair with the actor Richard Gere in 1966. • Robert Ellis Silberstein (1971-1977) – In January 1971, Diana got married to the music executive Robert Ellis Silberstein. In 1972, she gave birth to their first and her second daughter, Tracee Joy. In 1975, she gave birth to another baby girl, Chudney Lane Silberstein. However, their marriage didn’t last long after Chudney’s birth and they decided to divorce in 1977. • Arthur Ashe (1974-1975) – In 1974, Diana started dating American tennis player, Arthur Ashe. Their relationship is reported to have lasted for about a year as they decided to separate in October 1975. • Francesco Scavullo – Diana is reported to have gone out with the acclaimed photographer Francesco Scavullo towards the end of the 70s. They had come together after he had done a photoshoot for her album cover. • Michael Jackson – Diana shared a very close relationship with pop legend Michael Jackson from the late seventies right up to his untimely death. She had first met Jackson on the sets of the movie, The Whiz. It has been often claimed that their close friendship did turn into something serious at one point in time. They had also hinted at their alleged past romantic equation in a couple of their interviews. • Ryan O’Neal (1979) – In 1979, Diana had a brief affair with actor Ryan O’Neal. It was reported that she had told her friends that she wanted to marry O’Neal. • Gene Simmons (1980-1983) – In 1980, Diana started dating singer and guitarist, Gene Simmons, who is best known for being a member of the music band Kiss. It was widely claimed that they got together after Cher, who had just broken up with Simmons, suggested that he should ask for Ross’s advise for her Christmas gift. However, this version is disputed. Simmons himself claimed in 2015 that he was dating Cher when he fell in love with Diana, which damaged her friendship with Cher. In 1983, she dumped Simmons as she felt that Simmons had started seeing Cher again. • Michael Bloomberg – Diana Ross is rumored to have dated businessman and politician Michael Bloomberg, who is also known for having served as the Mayor of New York City for three consecutive terms from 2001, in the late nineties. The billionaire businessman has himself hinted at their romantic past by claiming that he once took her out for a date. • Arne Næss Jr. (1985-2000) – Diana started dating Norwegian billionaire, the shipping magnate Arne Næss, Jr. in October 1985. They got married in 1986. After their marriage, Diana became stepmother to his three children – Katinka, Christoffer, and Leona Naess, who is a folk singer. In 1987, she gave birth to their first son together – Ross Arne. She gave birth to Evan Olav (who has earned fame as a singer) in 1988. Their one-and-a-half decades-long marriage came to an end in 2000. It was claimed that he had fathered a child with another woman, which prompted Ross to divorce him. She would later call him the love of her life. • Jon Voight (2005-2006) – The reports of Ross dating actor Jon Voight first started surfacing in September 2005. Their relationship was confirmed in November 2005 by her representative in a press statement. However, their relationship didn’t last long as they separated in the early months of 2006.
Marital Status, Husband and Children
Husband/Spouse	Arne Naess, Jr. (m. 1985–2000) Robert Ellis Silberstein (m. 1971–1977)
Marriage Date	20 January 1971 (Robert Ellis Silberstein)
Children	Son- Ross Naess Evan Ross Daughters- Rhonda Ross Tracee Ellis Ross Chudney Ross
Education
School	The Cass Technical High School
College/University	Not Known
Educational Qualification	Graduated
Profession	Singer, songwriter, actress, record producer
Brands Endorsed	Pepsi Coca-Cola
Career Manager	The Fame Factory
Height, Weight, and Figure Measurements
Height (Approx.)	in centimeters- 164 cm in meters- 1.64 m in feet inches- 5’4½”
Weight (Approx.)	in kilograms- 56 kg in pounds- 123.5 lbs
Figure Measurements
Breast Size	34 Inches
Hips Size	35 Inches
Waist Size	25 Inches
Extra Ordinary Features
Race / Ethnicity	Black
Hair Color	Black
Eye Color	Dark Brown
S*xual Orientation	Straight
Dress Size	6 (US)
Shoe Size	9 (US)
Favourite Things
Favourite Colors	Blue
Controversies	1. She got into a dispute with a security guard in 1999 at London’s Heathrow Airport, and as a result was arrested and detained for four hours before being released. In late 2002, she was arrested for driving under the influence in Tucson, Arizona, for which she later was briefly sentenced to jail. 2. In 2000, Ross launched a Supremes tour, which was highly criticized for excluding original member Wilson and later addition Cindy Birdsong, with there being talks of financial disputes between Ross’ and Wilson’s camps. After experiencing low attendance, the tour was canceled following a short run.

Diana Ross was born in Detroit, Michigan to Fred Ross, Sr., a U.S. Army soldier and mother Ernestine, who was a school teacher. She lived with her family at Belmont Road, Detroit, and later in 1958 she, along with her family, moved to St. Antoine Street and lived at the Brewster-Douglass housing projects.

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She attended the Cass Technical High School, a four-year college preparatory magnet school in downtown Detroit and graduated in the year 1962. She also worked at the Hudson’s Department Store.

Ross has been married twice: In 1971 she wed music business manager Robert Ellis Silberstein. After their divorce, she was married to Norwegian tycoon Arne Næss Jr. from 1986 to 1999. The legendary singer is the mother of five children: Rhonda (whom Ross had with Gordy Jr.), Tracee (of Girlfriends and Black-ish fame), Chudney, Ross, and Evan.

Diana Ross Net Worth

Diana Ross has a net worth of $270 million.

At the end of 1980, Ross began negotiations to leave the Motown label. She received $250,000 in severance from the label after 20 years with them. Ross then went on to sign a $20 million, seven-year contract with RCA Records, which was the most expensive recording deal in history at the time.

For many years Diana’s primary residence has been a large mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut. She listed the home, which sits on 5-acres, for sale at one point in 2007 for $39.5 million. She did not find a buyer and after the real estate market crashed successfully lobbied to receive a refund for property taxes which in retrospect were not reflective of the true value. It is technically two parcels, one which is assessed at around $9 million, and the other which is assessed at $10 million since it is waterfront.

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Diana Ross Movies And TV Shows

• Signed to Motown Records by famed producer and label founder Berry Gordy Jr., in 1961 the Supremes scored their first No. 1 hit with “Where Did Our Love Go?” (1964).
• The trio then broke music records by having a streak of four additional singles top the charts “Baby Love” (1964), “Come See About Me” (1964) “Stop! In the Name of Love” (1965), and “Back in My Arms Again” (1965) thus becoming the first U.S. group ever to have five songs in a row to reach No 1.
• In all the group scored a monumental 12 No. 1 hit, including “I Hear a Symphony” (1965), “You Can’t Hurry Love” (1966), “The Happening” (1967), “Love Child” (1968) and “Someday We’ll Be Together” (1969). They thus established a phenomenal record, becoming the American vocal group with the most Billboard chart-toppers in history.
• Ross left the Supremes for a solo career in 1969 and continued to be a musical mainstay the following year with the Top 20 “Reach Out and Touch Somebody’s Hand” and the No. 1 “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”
• Among an array of albums, other hit songs for Ross from the 1970s included “Touch Me in the Morning” (1973), “Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To)” (1976) and sensual dance classic “Love Hangover” (1976), with all three tracks reaching No. 1 on the pop charts.
• In 1972, she branched out into acting and starred in the Billie Holiday biopic Lady Sings the Blues. While the film received somewhat mixed reviews, Ross’s performance garnered her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
• The Blues soundtrack was a huge success and helped spurn new interest in Holiday as well. Ross went on to star in the films Mahogany (1975), co-starring Billy Dee Williams and Anthony Perkins, and The Wiz (1978).
• The next decade started out on a strong note for Ross with the Nile Rodgers-produced, platinum-selling album Diana (1980), featuring the No. 1 hit “Upside Down” as well as the Top 5 track “I’m Coming Out.”
• She had another Top 10 single with “It’s My Turn” and then reached No. 1 again, this time with Lionel Richie on the 1981 duet “Endless Love,” from the film of the same name.
• On her new record label RCA, Ross released the albums Why Do Fools Fall in Love (1981), which offered two more Top 10 hits, and Silk Electric (1982), which had the Top 10 single “Muscles,” written by Michael Jackson. Ross’s sales gradually faltered, but she continued to record and perform.
• Returning to Motown Records near the end of the 1980s, she released the albums Workin’ Overtime (1989) and The Force Behind the Power (1991), the latter having significant international success with its singles.
• Albums put forth by Ross in the new millennium included Blue (2006), jazz standards set taken from Motown’s archives, and I Love You (2007), a collection of mostly pop covers.
• In the 1990s, Ross made several appearances on the small screen. She starred in the 1994 television movie Out of Darkness, playing a woman with schizophrenia.
• Ross then took on lighter fare with Double Platinum (1999), starring as a famous singer who had abandoned her child to pursue her career. Well-known pop performer Brandy played her daughter. Some of the songs from the project were featured on Ross’s 1999 album, Every Day Is a New Day.
• Ross has also experienced personal difficulties. She got into a dispute with a security guard in 1999 at London’s Heathrow Airport, and as a result, was arrested and detained for four hours before being released. In late 2002, she was arrested for driving under the influence in Tucson, Arizona, for which she later was briefly sentenced to jail.
• In 2000, Ross launched a Supremes tour, which was highly criticized for excluding original member Wilson and later addition Cindy Birdsong, with there being talks of financial disputes between Ross and Wilson’s camps. After experiencing low attendance, the tour was canceled following a short run.
• In 2007, Ross suffered a great personal loss. Her father, Fred, died in November of that year. “He touched many lives and he will be truly missed. I loved him very much,” Diana Ross said in a statement. On tour at the time, she returned home to Detroit to be with her family.
• Despite her personal and professional ups and downs, Ross has withstood the test of time as a performer with a career that spans more than four decades. She has won several major awards, including a Golden Globe, a Tony, and several American Music Awards. Ross was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 as part of the Supremes.
• Ross was awarded for her hard work again in 2007 when she was presented with Black Entertainment Television’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Also that year, a few weeks after her father’s death, Ross was honored by the Kennedy Center for her contributions to the arts.
• Vocalist Smokey Robinson and actor Terrence Howard were on hand to provide tributes to the superstar, and Ciara, Vanessa Williams, and Jordin Sparks paid homage to Ross in song. In 2009, Ross jumped back into the limelight when it was revealed that pop icon Michael Jackson had requested the diva as an alternate guardian for his children.
• In 2012 Ross received a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement; it would become her first Grammy ever, despite having been nominated twelve times. Four years later, Ross received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
• In 2017, she added to her collection with Lifetime Achievement honors at the American Music Awards.

Facts

• While studying in high school, she took classes in pattern making, tailoring, millinery, and clothing design. She also took modeling and cosmetology classes. She aspired to become a fashion designer.
• In her teens, she worked at Hudson’s Department Store. It has been claimed by her biographers that she was the first black employee to be allowed to work outside the kitchen.
• For some extra money, she also used to work as a hairdresser for the neighbors.
• She was discovered by Paul Williams, who was a member of the male vocal group, The Primes. He brought her to the attention of the group’s manager Milton Jenkins.
• At the age of 15, she was recruited by Jenkins for his female music group The Primettes, which served as the sister group of The Primes.
• Although Diana Ross and her group impressed Berry Gordy, the founder of iconic Motown Records, he decided against signing them initially as they were too young and asked them to come back after completing high school.
• Despite not being officially signed by Motown Records, the Primettes often used to visit their headquarters, where they offered extra help for the recordings. They worked as background vocals for the other artists.
• In April 1974, she achieved the distinction of being the first African American woman to have served as a co-host at the Academy Awards. Her co-hosts at the event were Burt Reynolds, David Niven, and John Huston.
• In 1980, she started negotiations to end her two-decades-long association with Motown Records. It has been claimed that she was reluctant to leave Motown Records and had asked Gordy whether he could match RCA Records’ offer.
• In May 1981, she signed a recording contract with RCA Records that was worth $20 million. It was the highest-paid recording contract in the history of the industry at that time.
• Her second movie Mahogany was produced by Motown Records and was mired with directorial troubles. The original director Tony Richardson was fired during production and when Berry Gordy stepped in to assume the director’s responsibility, he clashed with Ross, which led to her storming off and Gordy using a body double to complete the movie.
• It was only after Rob Cohen cast her in the role of Dorothy in the film adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, he was able to convince Universal Pictures to finance the project.
• In 1981, she established her production company by the name of “Anaid Productions”. Anaid is the backward spelling of her name Diana.
• In May 1982, she was honored with her star on the iconic Hollywood Walk of Fame. Overall, she has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for her solo career and another as a member of The Supremes.
• The Diana Ross Playground has been built in Central Park. She had performed at a free concert to raise funds (through television rights) for building the playground but the first one was stopped because of bad weather and the second one which was held the following day didn’t raise enough funds. She later signed a check for $250,000 USD to then-mayor Ed Koch for funding the project.
• She returned back to Motown Records, which was acquired by MCA Records, in the late eighties. As part of the record deal, she was offered shares in the company and was made the part-owner of the label.
• In 1994, she was asked to perform at the opening ceremony of the FIFA World Cup, which was held in the US.
• In 2002, she decided to admit herself to the 30 days rehab program at the Promises Institute in Malibu, California to take care of her alcohol problem. She left the program after three weeks to resume her music tour.
• In August 2002, she returned to the Promises Institute and this time, she got herself in the substance abuse rehabilitation program.
• In December 2002, she was arrested by Tuscon police after she failed the breathalyzer test on being pulled over for driving the wrong way on a one-way street during her stay at Arizona’s Canyon Ranch Health Resort.
• In January 2005, she launched her exclusive M.A.C. Icon makeup collection. It was a part of the Icon series released by the iconic beauty brand.
• In September 1999, she was arrested for having grabbed the airport security guard’s breast. Ross claimed that the guard had touched her breast while frisking her as she had set off an airport metal detector.
• In 1983, she launched her collection of pantyhose known as Diana Ross Ultra Sheers.
• In 1993, she was recognized as the most successful female singer of all time by the Guinness Book of World Records.
• In course of her music career, she has been nominated for the Grammy Awards on 12 occasions but has never managed to win any. Diana was awarded the honorary Grammy award for lifetime achievement in February 2012.
• In November 2016, she was honored by US President Barack Obama with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the ceremony held in the East Room of the White House.
• She has been recognized by the Billboard Magazine as the Female Entertainer of the Century.
• Although she has achieved tremendous success as a singer, her father wasn’t thrilled with her decision to become a singer. In fact, he was furious with her decision.

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