Diana Ross’s Daughter Explained How She Discovered Berry Gordy Was Her Real Father

Diana Ross’ first born, 51-year-old Rhonda Ross-Kendrick, did an interview a while back, where she talked how she eventually found that her father was not a tall, Jewish-American man, but rather an African American Motown Records head honcho.

For those who don’t know, Rhonda had often been referred to as Diana’s and Berry Gordy’s “love child” throughout the years. She was the product of their undercover connection that lasted for many years while ‘The boss’ Ms. Ross was with the Supremes and also during her solo career.

The identity of Rhonda’s real father was kept a secret, although we’re not quite sure why. My guess is that it was because the public didn’t know about Berry’s and Diana’s connection and maybe they thought it would have tainted Diana’s rep, although many people in the music industry knew.

Diana and Berry didn’t completely hide their connection, but they didn’t publicize it to the world either.

Any person on the face of this earth can take one look at Rhonda and clearly see that she is Berry Gordy’s baby, but I guess it’s much difficult to notice that just by looking in the mirror, when you’ve been lead to believe that someone else was your dad all of your life.

Anyways, here’s what Rhonda explained about how she learned Berry Gordy was not “Uncle Berry” but he was ‘Daddy’…

“The bottom line was, I looked just like [Gordy], and my sisters looked just like their father, a 6-foot-tall Jewish American man,” [Rhonda Ross] says. Even so, she’s still close to the man who raised her as his daughter, “though he knew I wasn’t his when my mom was pregnant.”

The oldest of the diva’s 5 children, Rhonda was nearly 13 when she was told the man she knew as father — her mother’s spouse and manager, Robert Ellis Silberstein — wasn’t.

Discovering who she really was came as a relief, she says. Gordy was already so close to the family that she and her sisters called him “uncle.” And while it took her awhile to learn the truth, others had guessed it far ago. “I’d meet fans on the street who’d say, ‘Oh child, we knew you were Berry Gordy’s daughter — you look just like him!’ ”