Being in the spotlight is never an easy task and one man that can surely attest to this is award-winning American-Canadian singer, songwriter, and record producer, Robin Thicke. The son of two TV stars, Thicke was thrust into the spotlight right from birth and has remained there to date with all the attendant consequences.
He has tasted highs such as a flourishing music career including a hit single “Blurred Lines”, which topped the US Billboard Hot 100 at the time of its release. He has also tasted the bad side of the spotlight including the public unraveling of his relationship and marriage to actress, Paula Patton. All these have shaken up Thicke and has made him understand while his parents were wary of his showbiz ambitions.
Who Was Alan Thicke and How Was He Related To Robin Thicke?
The late Alan Thicke was a renowned Canadian actor as well as a TV personality. He featured in several productions, both in his home country as well as Hollywood. He was, however, most popular for his role as Dr. Jason Seavers on the TV situation comedy, Growing Pains.
Growing Pains ran from 1985 to 1992 and fetched Alan several accolades including a nomination for the Golden Globe award for best performance by an actor in a TV series, Comedy, in 1988. He later passed away in 2016. During his lifetime, Alan was married thrice however it was his first marriage, to actress and singer, Gloria Loring, that produced his famous son, Robin Thicke.
Unfortunately, nine after the boy was born, he and Gloria divorced. This reality terribly saddened the young Robin and his brother, Brennan. Alan, however, tried to make it up to them by giving them the good things of life. He also made an effort to spend quality time with their kids and it was in the course of doing this that he noticed that his son had acting as well as singing talents.
Alan encouraged the young boy by giving him minor appearances on some of his TV shows including, The Wonder Years, The New Lassie, and Just the Ten of Us. He also encouraged his musical talent by scoring him a role as a rapper in a band on one episode of Growing Pains in 1991. To help his son effectively prepare for this role, Alan joined hands with the boy to write the song that he would do on the show. He also assisted in the structuring and they were able to cut a demo for the shoot.
The whole experience made Robin realize that he wanted to be a musician and he shared these dreams with his father. His father supported him wholeheartedly but refused to fund his demo. This refusal was not borne out of hate but rather out of fatherly concern. The Sr. Thicke did not want his son to ditch school for something that was not guaranteed. He was also wary of how his son could cope with the intrusive nature of being in showbiz.
He Achieved Fame with Blurred Lines
Following his father’s refusal to fund his demo, Robin Thicke and his band were able to get jazz vocalist, Al Jarreau, to put up the $1000 needed to produce it. It was eventually released and caught the attention of a singer, Brian McKnight, who invited Thicke over to work in his studio. This invitation resulted in a mentor-prodigy relationship which helped the teenager land his first record deal with Interscope Records in 1993.
Thicke was 16 at that time and would spend the next six years, earning a living as a professional record producer. He also worked as a songwriter and penned singles for notable artists such as Brandy, Jordan Knight, and Christina Aguilera. Robin Thicke eventually dropped his first professional single, When I Get You Alone, in 2002. It performed averagely in the U.S. but went on to impress in some foreign countries. This encouraged him to keep on working hard and he dropped his first album, A Beautiful World, in 2003. Robin has dropped several albums since then, namely The Evolution of Robin Thicke (2006), Something Else (2008), Sex Therapy: The Session (2009), Love After War (2011), Blurred Lines (2013), and Paula (2014).
The one that however catapulted him to stardom was Blurred Lines. Led by the controversial hit track of the same name, the album sold hundreds of thousands of copies in the US alone and was nominated for the best pop vocal album at the 2014 Grammy Awards. The lead single also topped the Billboard Hot 100 charts and received two Grammy nominations. It also went on to win four Billboard Music Awards including top radio song, top digital song, top hot 100 song, and top R&B song.
His Career Post-Blurred Lines – The Masked Singer and Real Husband of Hollywood
Since his 2014 album, Paula, Robin Thicke has not dropped any new album. This does not come as a surprise given the commercial and critical failure of the aforementioned Paula. Thicke is, therefore, taking his sweet time to work on another project which is tentatively named Morning Sun. The album is yet to materialize but Thicke has dropped some singles from it including ‘Morning Sun’ and ‘Back Together’. The former performed quite decently and reached the top of the Billboard Adult R&B Charts.
Apart from music, Robin Thicke has also made waves on the small screens. The singer featured in the fifth season of The Real Husbands of Hollywood in 2016 which features a bunch of stars playing a fictionalized version of themselves as they try to make it in Hollywood. Asides Thicke, other cast members included Kevin Hart, Nick Cannon, and rapper, Nelly.
Most recently in 2019, Robin Thicke scored a gig as a judge on the Fox singing reality show, The Masked Singer. Based on a popular South Korean franchise, the show features popular singers singing covers of songs anonymously. It then falls on Thicke and fellow panelists to vote for their favorite performer. The performer with the least vote then takes off their mask to reveal their identity.
Details of Robin Thicke’s Two-decade Romance with Actress, Paula Patton
Long before he got popular, Robin Thicke had met and began dating actress, Paula Patton. This was in 1993 and they remained together until they finally exchanged vows in 2005. During this period, they helped each other with their respective careers. Patton served as a muse of sorts for her man and inspired several of his songs. She also appeared in the videos for some of his singles including Lost Without You (2006) and Love After War (2011).
Thicke and Paula welcomed a son, named Julian Fuego Thicke, on the 7th of April 2010. They continued supporting each other until Thicke finally got his breakthrough in the year 2013. The couple celebrated this success together but it was this very same thing that ultimately caused the demise of their union.
Thanks to his new-found fame, Thicke got invites to several parties and gladly attended them all. He was often spotted in compromising position with other women but insisted nothing was going on. Paula also backed him up and they walked the red carpet of the Grammys together in January 2014.
However, by February 2014, they announced their separation and in October of that same year, Patton filed for divorce citing infidelity, drug use, and alleged abuse. The divorce was finalized on March 20, 2015, and Robin would admit that the cause of the split was the fact that he became selfish, greedy and full of himself.
Robin Thicke Has Moved One From Paula And Has Two Daughters With April Geary
Robin Thicke is, as of this writing, engaged to model, April Love Geary. Geary is a native of Huntington Beach, California, and was born on the 6th of December 1994. She has Mexican, Irish, Dutch, and French ancestry and is 17 years younger than her man. Geary is signed to IMG Worldwide & Photogenics Talent Agencies and has worked professionally as a model. She is also a big deal on Instagram where she often shares travel pics.
Thicke and Geary first met in 2014 and became an item in 2015. They got engaged on Christmas Eve of 2018. The couple is yet to tie the knot but they do have two daughters namely Mia Love Thicke (b. February 22, 2018) and Lola Alain Thicke (b. February 26, 2019). Geary regularly shares pictures of her and Thicke on Instagram and some have utilized this to criticize her post-pregnancy weight gain. The model, however, refuses to bow to the haters and has stated that she is forever grateful for the baby weight.
