The Trials of Rita Marley

The upcoming Bob Marley biopic, titled Bob Marley: One Love, is scheduled to be released in the United States on February 14, 2024 by Paramount Pictures. Ahead of the film’s release, I wanted to share my personal reflection on the legacy of Rita Marley, a perspective which is not normally covered by the media. When I was growing up in Jamaica, Bob Marley was already a global icon, but at home, his music was polarising. While the world celebrated his messages of unity and social justice, his music was often viewed with suspicion by the establishment elites and by our Christian society at large.

In the decades after Jamaica’s independence, colonialism still cast long shadows, and this led me to assume that the criticism of Bob Marley’s music was rooted in bigotry. The racial prejudice that persisted at home often clouded the judgment of those who labeled his music as degenerate. As I reflect on those days, I’ve come to realise that beneath the controversy was a deeper issue: the dysfunctional relationship between Bob Marley and his wife, Rita Marley.

In 2004, Rita told BBC Caribbean Service that Bob’s extra-marital affairs were “painful” but she endured because she was in love with him. One of his most notorious affair partners was Cindy Breakspeare, Miss World 1976. Her affair with Bob Marley brought both admiration and condemnation. She was a white woman, and she faced a different kind of scrutiny because the establishment elites held her to a higher standard. Routinely, they dragged her into the public square and roundly reprimanded her for letting the side down.

Amidst this turmoil, Rita Marley was a symbol of the compliant women of the Silent Generation and Baby Boomer era. In her own words, “It’s a natural thing, Jamaican men have a thing where they want more than one woman…” This was the attitude that enabled immature and irresponsible behaviour, even though extramarital affairs, multiple partners, and children born out of wedlock were in clear conflict with conservative Christian (or Rastafarian) values of the day.

Even as a child, I wondered why Rita Marley allowed her husband to treat her like that. And many women cast a side eye at Cindy Breakspeare, who didn’t seem to mind her own public stoning, and spoke proudly of her fling with Bob. Apparently, she worked out that associating her name with Bob Marley’s would help boost her own music career. Later, she did the same for her son, recording artist, Damian Marley.

The probate battles over Bob Marley’s fortune that consumed over a decade of Rita’s life served to damage her reputation rather than burnish it. Among the many episodes was the lawsuit from her late husband’s estate, which alleged that she forged Bob’s signature on backdated documents and removed assets from his estate. More affair partners and (alleged) children were thrust into the media spotlight. It was as if everyone who had a baby in the late seventies was lining up to say Bob was the daddy.

Could Rita have taken a different path through divorce? She had access to the very best legal advice money could buy. At the very least, she would have been entitled to half of Bob’s assets and claimed a portion of his future earnings to support her children with him. His refusal to draft a will to look after his family, even as he lay dying of melanoma, was ignorant, negligent, and selfish. His final words to his son, Stephen, “Money can’t buy life,” don’t strike me as particularly heroic. Over the years, the highly publicised probate case was used to teach breadwinners how to properly protect their assets and adequately provide for their families.

In my youth, I believed that the fairytale of wedded bliss would function as advertised. But around me, there were few role models who offered affirming guidance for women. Rita’s choices are understandable in the context of the 1970s, but we should remember that healthy, happy marriages are a contemporary notion. Rita came of age in a time where wives were expected to serve the needs of their husbands. And they often did so at the expense of their own dignity.

Today, the landscape is shifting and we are no longer expected to put up with toxic behaviour. We are encouraged to embrace emotional vulnerability and communicate openly. However, the legacy of famous wives like Rita Marley, who chose not to confront injustice, carries its own weight. If Rita had chosen to fight for herself, she might have done more for women who felt unsupported in their struggles. While she was not obligated to act as a beacon of strength, I believe that her silent acceptance of the status quo helped to muffle the voices of women who needed an advocate.

Rita’s story reminds us that the legacy we leave behind is not only about our personal choices. We should consider their potential impact on those who come after us. One example stands in contrast to Rita’s choice to accept her husband’s philandering. Diana, Princess of Wales, took a markedly different approach when faced with her own marital problems.

Diana got married in 1981, the same year that Bob Marley died. She was fifteen years younger than Rita. Fourteen years later, her willingness to openly discuss her mental and emotional struggles, including Prince Charles’ affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, broke with royal tradition. Diana’s candidness not only shed light on the emotional toll of a strained marriage but also challenged societal norms. The public supported her even as the establishment did its best to paint her as mentally unstable. In other words, standing up for herself was tough, but she did it anyway. Even today, Diana’s ghost trails behind the regnal robes of King Charles III (as it should).

The real trials of Rita Marley are the consequences of the choices she made as a woman of her time. Her story reminds us that the responsibility for fostering healthy relationships lies with both individuals. And regardless of societal expectations, we should love and respect ourselves instead of searching for partners and status symbols to give them to us.

Rita’s story is rooted in an earlier generation, but it is a mirror we can use to reflect upon the progress we’ve made. Let us keep challenging toxic relationship patterns as we promote healthier ones. Rita Marley’s trials, in the end, are a lesson in what we need: courage, self-respect, and dignity in the pursuit of personal fulfilment.