Inside Quincy Jones’ complicated love life – from three wives to a 54-year age gap romance and 22 girlfriends at once in his 80s

Quincy Jones broke records as one of the first black music executives to thrive in Hollywood, and his dating life similarly defied expectations – from dating 22 women at one time when he was in his 80s, to a rumoured liaison with Hugh Hefner’s wife. 

The legendary music producer behind Michael Jackson’s Thriller album, who died last night aged 91 at his Bel Air home, was a father-of-seven by five different women and once vowed not to date anyone younger than 28, so that his girlfriends were at least older than his daughters.

‘I got 22 girlfriends,’ 85-year-old Jones told GQ in the 2018, adding: ‘Everywhere. Cape Town. Cairo. Stockholm—she’s coming in next week. Brazil—Belo Horizonte, São Paulo, and Rio. Shanghai—got a great girl over there from Shanghai, man. Cairo, whew.’ 

Justifying his dabbling in serial dating, he explained it was because he had ‘a lot of love to give’. 

He told Oprah: ‘I just got attracted by kindness—by someone who acknowledged me as a human being.’

Jones’s family – which includes his actress daughter Rashida Jones, who played Karen Filippelli in The Office – yesterday said in a statement: ‘Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of our father and brother Quincy Jones’ passing.

‘And although this is an incredible loss for our family, we celebrate the great life that he lived and know there will never be another like him.’

Here, Femail delves into the colourful romantic history of the music producer, from marrying his high school crush in the ’50s to his continued pursuit of love, even in his older years. 

JERI CALDWELL 

Jeri Caldwell was Quincy’s high school sweetheart, or as he put it, one of the ‘hotsy-totsies’ at school who he couldn’t help but notice.

The pair met at Garfield High School when she was a sophomore, and he was a junior.

‘I was sitting on the stage with a girlfriend of mine, and I looked down into the orchestra pit and there was this beautiful little face, and it was Quincy,’ Jeri recalled in Quincy Jones: In the Pocket.

For Jeri, it was a moment she described as love at first sight. She added: ‘And I just was mesmerized. And I turned round to my girlfriend, and I said, ”oh, Tony, look at him, I’m in love”.

‘And it was so funny because I never even thought about an interracial situation or anything.

‘It just didn’t have anything to do with that. He just had the sweetest little face. So, then I you know, that was the first time I saw him.’

After Jeri first laid eyes on Quincy, she would hang around in spots she knew he would be, saying: I would sort of try to be there when he came down and hope that he noticed me. You know?

‘Well, I found out later that he had noticed me before and, you know, but I just didn’t know it.

‘So, I hang around the water fountain and he’d walk by the water fountain, and I’d take a sip of water, and he’d take a sip of water. And finally, he said hi. And so little by little. Around the water fountain, we kind of got to know each other.’

Years later, Quincy confirmed the tale, telling Oprah: ‘I noticed that she stopped at the water fountain every day—the dog squad is real good at noticing patterns.’

Despite Jeri being mesmerized by Quincy, her family initially struggled to come to terms with their daughter being in an interracial relationship.

‘I was shocked because my family was really liberal, and they had black friends. And I had been raised to. I knew that it wasn’t acceptable by a lot of people, but I didn’t think that was true of my parents until that day.’

But after her mother got to know Quincy, her prejudices faded. Jeri said: ‘He went to this restaurant, and she went down and met him. And they had this talk. And I was at home just dying, you know.

‘And she came back, and she said, oh, honey, I can understand why you love him. He’s just so sweet. His eyes are so beautiful. And he told me that he just loved you and he wanted to marry you and that he would always take care of you, you know.’

She added: ‘Being an interracial couple was where a couple was really difficult in those times. And I think I was too naïve about how difficult it was. 

‘Quincy had a better handle on that because he travelled down south, and he’d been around with the band, and he knew.

The pair had a child, Jolie, in October 1953, while Quincy was away in Europe. Now 69, Jolie has worked in the creative industry much like her father did, dipping into modelling, singing, and producing.

Thinking back to the time of Jolie’s birth, Jeri said: ‘I gave birth to Jolie, and I was mad at him. I guess I’d had such a painful labour. And I just all of a sudden got mad at him because he wasn’t there. I mean, I knew it wasn’t logical.

‘I knew it made no sense because he couldn’t help it. But I just got mad, and I didn’t even want to tell him that she’d been born.’

However, the pair wed in 1957. Quincy was 19 when he married Jeri but admitted to Oprah that she wasn’t his first love, just the first love he married.

After nine years together, they divorced in 1966. While it’s not common knowledge why the pair split, the music producer later revealed the two partners he was faithful to, and Jeri wasn’t one of them.

He told Oprah: ‘I never cheated on Ulla [Anderson, Quincy’s second wife] or on my third wife, Peggy [Lipton].’

CAROL REYNOLDS 

Quincy had a brief affair with Carol Reynolds, a dancer from New York. Despite the relationship being short lived, it resulted in the birth of Quincy’s second daughter, Rachel, in July 1963.

Unlike Jolie, Rachel carved out a life outside of the creative industries. Instead, she graduated from the Tuskegee University School of Veterinary Medicine in 1999 and now owns a holistic mobile veterinary practice in LA and New York, according to People.

ULLA ANDERSSON  

Quincy met his second wife Swedish model and actress Ulla Andersson at a New York-based party held in honour of Frank Sinatra in 1966, according to Popsugar.

Ulla, who was signed to Ford Modelling Agency, found success as a model in the ’60s, gracing various magazine covers. She also starred in various Swedish films.

The pair fell for one another and married one year later in 1967, before having two children together, Martina and Quincy Jones III. Andersson retired from her modelling career to focus on raising her children.

When the pair formally separated; Andersson, now 78, returned to Sweden with her children before the pair divorced in 1974.

Martina returned to live with her father in America in her late teens to study dance, according to People. 

The 57-year-old in 2022 shared a gushing post about her father, writing: ‘Happy Birthday D!

‘This is one of my favourite days of the year … I love you every day, but I send you a little extra today as I am so happy you were born and that I get to call you Daddy.

‘I love you with all my heart and hope you have the most beautiful day ever … Thanks for always being a light and huge guide in my life LOVE YOU D’.

Quincy Jones III, 55, boasts a successful career, having produced a series called Beef, which explores hip-hop culture, as well as releasing albums in the genre himself.

PEGGY LIPTON 

American actress and model Peggy Lipton wed Quincy from 1974 to 1990, and the pair went on to have two children together, Kidada, 50, and Rashida, 48.

Peggy’s breakout role came when she appeared on the Mod Squad with co-stars Clarence Williams III and Michael Cole from 1968. It was during her time working on that show when she first met Quincy.

‘When I met Quincy, I was an actress working on a show called The Mod Squad [it] was my last year and I’ve been working on it for four years,’ the late actress recalled in Quincy Jones: In the Pocket.

She continued: ‘And when I met him, I you know, I know I didn’t want to go any further in terms of working at all. I just knew I had to finish that one year and I did.

‘But I couldn’t wait to get it over with so that we could, you know, just be together and start a family.’

She continued: ‘The first time I met Quincy, he was still married. And I just was so drawn to him, you know, never knowing, like, that’s my husband, but feeling very, very drawn to him.

‘And I didn’t meet him again till after he had broken up with his second wife. And that was maybe almost two years later. So, I kind of looked at him maybe as baby making material because he always used to say to me … I want a baby.

‘So, in terms of working again, I didn’t I didn’t care. I didn’t even occur to me that I would ever have to work again or want to work again. I was happy for it to be over, and it wasn’t the happiest life I’d led a very lonely life up until I met Quincy.’

Despite wanting to focus on her family life, the actress did continue with her career. She appeared on the cult hit Twin Peaks throughout its 1989 to 1991 run, as well as the 1992 film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and the show’s 2017 reboot.

Peggy had also dabbled in music with a self-titled 1968 album, and a hit 1970 single with Wear Your Love Like Heaven, a cover of the Donovan song.

The actress also appeared on TV in Wings, Alias, House of Lies and Rashida’s series Angie Tribeca, while she had roles in the 1997 Kevin Costner film The Postman, and the 1999 Mod Squad movie, in which Claire Danes played her original role.

In 2019, Quincy paid an emotional tribute to his ex-wife Peggy Lipton, after her death at age 72, following her battle with cancer.

The music mogul, then-86, said there was ‘no combination of words’ that he could use to express his sadness over the news, in a statement shared via X.

Sharing the moving message with his followers, Quincy wrote: ‘There is absolutely no combination of words that can express the sadness I feel after losing my beloved Peggy Lipton…. My wife of 14 years.

‘We shared many, many beautiful memories, and most importantly, we share two incredible daughters… Pie (Kidada) & Doonkie (Rashida).

‘Regardless of the paths that our lives took us on, I can say with the utmost certainty, that love is eternal. Thank you all for the love and support you’ve shown me and my family.’

Alongside his message, Quincy shared a sweet throwback image of them together, in which he planted a kiss on Peggy’s cheek as she beamed.

NASTASSJA KINSKI

Following his divorce with Polly, Quincy went on to enjoy a romantic relationship with German actress and model, Nastassja Kinski.

Nastassja was caught in scandal before, having begun a relationship in 1976 aged 15 with director Roman Polanski, who was then 43. She went on to star in his 1979 film, Tess.

In 1984 she married Egyptian filmmaker Ibrahim Moussa, with whom she had two children. Following their divorce, she met Quincy, who was 28 years her senior.

Their relationship lasted for three years, and they had one daughter – Kenya Jula Miambi Sarah Jones, a model known as Kenya Kinski-Jones, 31, together.

In an interview with the Telegraph in 2015, Natassja described her relationship with Quincy as ‘fine’, saying healthy co-parenting was a priority.

She told the newspaper: ‘I never had a family,’ adding, ‘and what I always wanted was my family. And now that I had little kids, that’s what I wanted to do: to be there. And not not be there.’

LISETTE WEINER DEROUAUX

Next up in Quincy’s love life was his publicist Lisette Weiner Deroaux. The pair met at Montreux Jazz Festival in 1995 before she was hired as his publicist.

She went on to take on the role as the executive director and vice president of his Listen Up Foundation, which aims to end the cycle of poverty and violence by education children with technology and music.

The pair’s relationship quickly progressed from being platonic, according to PopSugar, with them developing a romantic relationship that lasted six years.

It was due to their opposing stance on children that they eventually called it quits, with Jones not wanting to fulfil Lisette’s desire for a child.

‘I can’t have a rug rat right now, like cats and dogs, scratching all my (expletive) up,’ Quincy said, according to USA Today. He added: ‘I’m done with that.’

Despite splitting, the pair remained on good terms, with Jones making the song ‘Lisette’ about his former lover.

Lisette also introduced Quincy to her husband and father of her two children, American businessman and CEO of LinkedIn, Jeff Weiner.

KIMBERLEY CONRAD 

She was Playboy’s Playmate of the Month in January 1988 and Hugh Hefner’s second wife.

However, Kimberley Conrad, now 62, was also romantically linked to Quincy during her marriage to the American magazine publisher.

PopSugar claimed that Kimberley and Quincy enjoyed each other’s company in 2005, despite her marriage to Hugh lasting from 1989 to 2010.

In 2009, Hugh asked for his marriage to former playmate Kimberly Conrad, then-47, to be end because the two feuded about money.

Hefner wanted his support payments for Conrad to be cut by half to $20,000 a month, saying he has already given his estranged wife close to $12m since their separation in 1998.

HEBA ELAWADI 

Quincy’s alleged relationship with Egyptian designer Heba Elawadi in 2006 raised eyebrows due to their 54-year age gap.

The pair were first seen together at a Ludacris listening party in 2006 when she was 19 years old and he was 73. 

The designer thought to have dated  the music producer for approximately one year before parting ways.

After dating Heba, Jones was rumoured to date a string of other high profile women, including, he claimed, Ivanka Trump. 

IVANKA TRUMP 

Quincy once claimed he dated Ivanka Trump in a bombshell interview where he described her as having ‘the most beautiful legs’, but ‘the wrong father’.

The music titan told New York magazine’s David Marchese in 2018 that he went on a date with the former First Daughter in 2006 – when Ivanka was 25, and Jones was 73.

In the shocking discussion, he called Trump a ‘crazy m***********’ and a ‘megalomaniac narcissist’ as he revealed ‘I used to date Ivanka, you know’.

Marchese was blown away by the information, pressing Jones for further details where he explained at the time Tommy Hilfiger had been working with his daughter Kidada, a former model, who told him that Ivanka wanted to have dinner with him.

‘I said, ‘No problem,’ Jones told the publication. ‘She’s a fine m***********.’ She had the most beautiful legs I ever saw in my life. Wrong father, though.’

Ivanka never confirmed or denied the claims and at the time of the bombshell interview, was an adviser to the White House, as her father Donald Trump was the US President.

Ivanka, now 43, is married to her father’s former senior advisor, Jared Kushner, after the pair first met in 2007, before marrying in 2009.

Since then, the couple have welcomed three children together: Arabella, Joseph and Theodore. 

MARPESSA DAWN

While it’s not confirmed that the music producer dated American French actress Marpessa Dawn, he once alluded to a relationship in a GQ interview.

When asked about a misconception that people have about him, he answered that onlookers often think he solely desires blonde women. However, he refuted the claims by referring to Marpessa.

He said: ‘Well, because I had three wives, white wives, and they stereotype, you know. But they wrong like a m********, man. You ever see Black Orpheus? That was my old lady, Marpessa Dawn. Gorgeous lady, man.’

The late actress, singer, and dancer, who passed away in 2008, was best known for her work on Black Orpheus.

HAZEL SCOTT

Trinidadian-born jazz singer Hazel Scott was listed as one of the women that Quincy allegedly dated in his 2001 Autobiography of Quincy Jones, according to PopSugar.

Hazel was the first African American woman to host her own television show, according to National Women’s History Museum.

The late musician boasted a successful career in the world of jazz and was playing professionally by the time she was a teenager.

She stood up against racial prejudice and was one of the first performers to refuse playing to a segregated audience.

JULIETTE GRECO

In addition to Hazel, the 2001 Autobiography of Quincy Jones also included Juliette Greco as one of the women who had allegedly dated the late music producer.

The French actress and singer was at one point romantically involved with both Quincy and American jazz musician Miles Davies, according to PopSugar.

Gréco, who was known for songs ‘Deshabillez Moi’ (Undress Me) and La Javanaise (The Javanaise) died aged 93 in Ramatuelle in 2020.

Gréco was known for her daring lyrics, which were often written by big names of the French music industry.

‘La Javanaise,’ one of her best-known hits, released in 1963, was written for her by Serge Gainsbourg, after they spent a night drinking champagne and talking in 1962.