Cedella & Ziggy Marley Celebrate Rita And Bob Marley’s 55th Wedding Anniversary
Cedella Marley and her younger brother Ziggy, shared their parents’ Bob and Rita Marley’s wedding photos on Wednesday, to mark the couple’s 55th wedding anniversary.
The two posted photos of a young, pre-dreadlocked Bob sporting an Afro hairstyle and Rita with short curled hair, staring into each other’s eyes and smiling at each other.
“When you struggle with someone from nothing and go through the toughest experiences together a bond is made that is unbreakable,” Ziggy noted on his Instagram page, while adding: “On this day in 1966, @officialritamarley and @bobmarley were married! Today we celebrate their 55th wedding anniversary 💚💛❤️ #LOVE…” on his Tuff Gong Worldwide page.
“Yesterday marked 55 years since these two got married. Happy Anniversary Mama Lion and Daddy ❤️ @officialritamarley @bobmarley,” Cedella wrote on her page on Thursday.
The late Reggae icon met Rita in the 1960s, and they got married on February 10, 1966 in Kingston. The union produced three children: daughter Cedella and sons Ziggy and Stephen.
Bob also adopted Sharon a daughter Rita had from a previous relationship.
Rita had revealed aspects of her love life with Bob in the 2012 documentary Marley, the first official biopic supported by the Marley family, for which Ziggy served as executive producer. In an article following the release of the documentary, titled Bob had jealous love for me The Voice newspaper quoted Rita as affirming in the film, that the love she shared with her late husband, was “unconditional”.
“A lot of people don’t realise that Bob really had a deep love for me… no-one would believe the sort of jealous love Bob had for me. He didn’t want to see any other man look at me! He was very jealous,” Rita is quoted as saying.
“When we first met, it was in poverty and pain. There was no showmanship behind it or any superstardom. It was just two ghetto people falling in love naturally, out of God’s grace. And we knew what true love felt like throughout the good and bad we shared,” she had said.
The Voice noted that Rita, who continues to fly the flag for her late husband’s legacy, “spoke candidly in the film about the dalliances her husband had with other women while they were married”.
“I find it amusing sometimes; the way the other women threw themselves at him… and deep down in his heart, he maybe only had one love. The other things were like a fling, or a period of time that created that sense of fantasy that comes with show business,” she had said.
Rita had also recalled in the documentary that when she met Bob, he was by no means a gyallis, but instead was very shy.
“So I was very surprised when he started having all these women, because that really wasn’t him – that was not his lifestyle… he was, not against women, but he was just so focused on making something of his career. So back then, there was no notion of him being about girls, girls, girls. That only came after fame, popularity and stardom,” she had said.
Rita had also said that despite Bob’s womanizing ways, she never badmouthed her husband to her children.
“I tried to keep the kids out of the internal happenings… the women and the nights he stayed out. I always told the kids, ‘daddy is a good man. He’s hard working.’ And the kids knew that. He treated us in a special way and he looked out for us. He supported us financially and spiritually, and most people don’t realise he was that kind of person,” she said.