I always thought the Ronettes were a group of Filipino girls. I didn't know until I was looking up info about them they were not Filipino at all. Ronnie and her sister Estelle were bi-racial... their mother was African-American/American Indian and their father was Irish-American. I had no idea. I also discovered that Ronnie was abused during her marriage to Phil Spector. I knew Ronnie was married to Phil Spector for a while and that he was completely crazy (and a convicted murderer later in life) but I didn't know what an awful life she had until I read the following on Wikipedia:

Personal life and death

Bennett and Phil Spector began having an affair soon after she was signed to his label in 1963. Early in their relationship, she was unaware that he was married. Once, Bennett was busted by house detectives for prostitution at the Delmonico hotel in New York City after leaving a room they had booked. She was allowed to call Spector, who threatened the hotel, and then they allowed her to leave. After Spector divorced his wife in 1965, he purchased a home in Beverly Hills, where he lived with Bennett.

They married at Beverly Hills City Hall on April 14, 1968. Bennett changed her surname and became known as Ronnie Spector. Their son Donté Phillip was adopted in 1969. Two years later, Phil surprised her for Christmas with adopted twins, Louis and Gary.

Spector revealed in her 1990 memoir, Be My Baby, that after they married, Phil subjected her to years of psychological torment and sabotaged her career by forbidding her to perform. He surrounded their house with barbed wire and guard dogs, and confiscated her shoes to prevent her from leaving. On the rare occasions he allowed her out alone, she had to drive with a life-size dummy of Phil. Spector stated that Phil installed a gold coffin with a glass top in the basement, promising that he would kill her and display her corpse if she ever left him. She began drinking and attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings to escape the house.

In 1972, Spector fled their mansion barefoot and without any belongings with the help of her mother. "I knew that if I didn't leave I was going to die there," she said. In their 1974 divorce settlement, Ronnie forfeited all future record earnings after Phil threatened to have a hit man kill her. She received $25,000, a used car, and monthly alimony of $2,500 for five years. Spector later testified that Phil had frequently pulled a gun on her during their marriage and threatened to kill her unless she surrendered custody of their children.

Spector tried to rebuild her career, keeping his surname professionally because "I needed any way I could to get back in, I'd been kept away so long." But Phil hired lawyers to prevent her singing her classic hit songs and denied her royalties. In 1988, Spector and the other Ronettes sued Phil for $10 million in damages, rescission of the contract, the return of the masters, and recoupment of money received from the sale of Ronettes masters. It took 10 years for the case to make it to trial, and after a prolonged legal battle, Phil was ordered to pay Spector over $1 million in royalties.

In 1982, Spector married her manager Jonathan Greenfield. They lived in Danbury, Connecticut with their two sons, Austin Drew and Jason Charles.

Spector died from cancer on January 12, 2022, at the age of 78.

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