WellnesMe

Marvin Gaye's divorce deal gave his ex-wife the first $600,000 from his next album. So he made the whole album about her Then he invited her to the studio to listen She was getting paid for every song on it. After the album came out, she considered suing him over those songs for $5 million But she wasn't just his ex-wife She was the older sister of his boss, Motown founder Berry Gordy. The man who owned the label that would put out the album In the video below, 1983, Marvin explains how he works: "If I'm being divorced, I write divorce albums" Her name was Anna Gordy. When they married in 1963, he was a young singer at her brother's label. She was 17 years older Twelve years later she filed for divorce and asked for $1 million A judge ordered him to pay $5,500 a month until it was settled. He fell behind. A warrant was issued for his arrest He was broke and owed back taxes. So his lawyer came up with a strange deal Anna would get $600,000. The advance on his next album, plus the royalties after that The plan was a quick record. Get it done, get her paid Instead he spent more than a year in his own studio and made a double album. Almost every song about the marriage. Why it started, why it ended, whose fault it was He called it "Here, My Dear" It flopped. It didn't even earn back the advance So Marvin, by then bankrupt, had to keep sending her checks every month to cover the rest Decades later Rolling Stone put it on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time The case for Anna: she asked for $1 million, settled for $600,000, and he was the one who stopped paying Should your ex get paid from work you do after the divorce?