These Funky Fathers Had Way Too Many Illegitimate Children [Podcast]

Today we give you the dirty details on four funky men who fathered a total of over 40 children with over 25 women. Happy Father’s Day!

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Father’s Day is around the corner, but we already talked about all of the dad-related songs we could think of in last year’s Father’s Day episode. Luckily we are geniuses and came up with something even better. It’s an undeniable fact that some celebrity men end up conceiving multiple children with many women—much of the time out of wedlock. In this tongue-in-cheek discussion, we have a laugh about four funky fathers, their marriages, mistresses and the many, many children that resulted.

Stevie Wonder was married twice, and conceived 9 children with at least 4 different women. There were very likely more than 4 women however since we don’t know much about most of his kids. One of his daughters is worth mentioning—Aisha Morris, who provided the inspiration for his song, “Isn’t She Lovely” and is now a singer in her own right.

Berry Gordy (president of Motown Records) was married three times, and had 8 children with 6 different women. Two of his kids have interesting stories. Kennedy William Berry became popularly known as the Motown musician Rockwell in the 80s. Berry’s youngest son, Stefan Kendal Berry, is better known as Redfoo from the contemporary duo LMFAO (with the other member, SkyBlu, being Gordy’s grandson from another one of his children). Barry also had an affair, and a daughter, with Motown singer Diana Ross, who was arguably the most successful female singer to come out of that era of music.

Ray Charles was married twice, and had 12 children with 10 different women. Unfortunately none of his children or their mothers were particularly noteworty, but the numbers are pretty staggering regardless. Between him and Stevie Wonder, one thing’s for certain—blind guys get a lot of ladies.

James Brown was married four times and had at least 12 children, but we’re not sure how many women were in the mix. We don’t know the specifics of when many of Brown’s children were born, or with whom he had them, but we know that he “acknowledges” 9 of them (5 sons and 4 daughters). In 2007 it was brought to light that he has at least 3 additional illegitimate children, and we can only imagine how many others might be out there.