Following the tragic news that Ronnie Spector died after “a brief battle with cancer", fans of the singer want to know which members of family she sadly left behind.
Veronica Greenfield, known professionally as Ronnie Spector, was born in East Harlem, New York, on 10th August 1943. Spector formed the girl group The Ronettes with her older sister, Estelle Bennett, and their cousin, Nedra Talley, and it was their tracks like Be My Baby and Walking in the Rain which shot the girl-group into fame.
Who are Ronnie Spector’s children?
Ronnie Spector had five children from her two relationships.
The singer shared three children: Louis Phillip Spector, 56, Gary Phillip Spector, 56, and Donte Phillip Spector, 53, with her ex-husband Phil Spector.
Her ex-husband surprised the Be My Baby hitmaker by adopting twin boys Louis and Gary, without telling her.
She told People: “We were in the car and all of a sudden we pulled up to the mansion and there's these twins running around - these blond-haired, blue-eyed twins.”
“I'm saying, ‘What's this?’ and he said, ‘Merry Christmas!’”
“No one wants live children as a surprise,” Ronnie said, explaining how the pair came to adopt the children.
The twin boys later accused their adopted father, Phil Spector, of abuse. In an interview with the Mail on Sunday in 2003, Donte explained that the relationship with his dad was a “thin line between love and hate.”
Donte also explained how Phil locked him and his brothers in their rooms “with locks on the door”, and that he left home at just 10 years old after suffering the abuse.
Ronnie divorced Phil after six years of marriage, accusing him in a memoir for holding her prisoner in their mansion and explained how she escaped their home barefoot in 1972 with her mother’s help.
After her divorce in 1974, the Ronettes star then went on to have two more children: Jason Charles Greenfield, and Austin Drew Greenfield, with her second husband, Jonathan Greenfield.
It is not known when Jason and Austin were born, and how old they are in 2022.
Gabriella Ferlita