One of the most beautiful Black love stories of our generation is that of Bob and Rita Marley. The two met in the 1960s when the legendary reggae singer was on the rise as the frontman of the Wailing Wailers. After hearing Rita sing with the all-female vocal group The Soulettes, he asked her to join his group as a vocalist.
Their romance blossomed during Jamaica’s burgeoning reggae scene as they bonded over their love of music, country and Rastafarian beliefs, and they married in a simple ceremony in 1966.
Their union did have its trials and tribulations. A global superstar, Bob gave in to temptation, which led to infidelity within the marriage. Political unrest ran rampant in Kinston, Jamaica, in the 1970s, and the Marleys had a concert planned to promote peace. On December 3, 1976, their home was raided by armed men: Bob was shot in the chest and arm. Rita was shot in the head while sitting in a car in their driveway. But even an assassination attempt couldn’t drive them apart.
Lashana Lynch and Kingsley Ben-Adir in Bob Marley: One Love. Image: Chiabella James for Paramount Pictures.
The depth of the Marleys’ love is aptly captured in the new film Bob Marley: One Love. Stars Kingsley Ben-Adir and Lashana Lynch tell EBONY why they believe the couple has such an unbreakable bond.
“I think it’s the idea of unconditional love, the love that we can have for some people we’ve known for a long time and how we can express that,” says Ben-Adir, who plays Bob Marley in the film. “Lashana and I spoke a lot about how we can bring that forward on the screen without words: What does it mean to know someone for 20 years and to have children together, all of that? We spent a lot of time trying to find as many of those nuances as we could without overstating anything.”
Lynch got to sit with the real Rita Marley to prepare for the role. “She just has this indescribable undeniable balance and equilibrium in herself that some people in the world maybe just won’t understand,” the actress shares. “There’s so much she was put through and had to endure. And, yes, many things happened in and around the relationship. But the way that she did it, it was her grace. And it was her choices that made her the stand-up woman she was at that time and has always been, in my opinion. And only upon meeting her did I really get that it was only her that could have done it.”
Bob lost his life to cancer in 1981, but the Marley love affair still endures. It’s “on the deeper molecular level, transcendent,” Lynch says, adding that Rita’s love and passion for Bob is still evident today.
“As soon as I mentioned his name, she was just beaming with a radiant, deep like ancestral love that I’ve never anticipated,” Lynch recalls, “swirling with all of these almost child-like teenage-type feelings that you get when someone’s new. And it’s really comforting because you see that actually stays with you. You can have that love in the beginning, and then 40 or 50 years later, it’s still there. Ms. Rita just lights up at the mention of him. And I think that’s all you need to know.”
Bob Marley: One Love, now playing nationwide.
