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Relationships and children

Charles was married twice. His first marriage lasted less than a year; his second lasted 22 years. Throughout his life, Charles had many relationships with women with whom he fathered a dozen children.

His first marriage to Eileen Williams lasted from July 31, 1951, until 1952.

He met his second wife Della Beatrice Howard Robinson (called "Bea" by Charles) in Texas in 1954. They married the following year on April 5, 1955. Their first child together, Ray Charles Robinson Jr., was born in 1955. Charles was not in town for the birth because he was playing a show in Texas. The couple had two more sons, David and Robert. They raised their children in View Park, California. Charles felt that his heroin addiction took a toll on Della during their marriage. Due to his drug addiction, extramarital affairs on tours and volatile behavior, the marriage deteriorated and she filed for divorce in 1977 and it was finalized after 22 years of marriage.

Charles had a six-year-long affair with Margie Hendrix, one of the original Raelettes, and in 1959 they had a son, Charles Wayne. His affair with Mae Mosley Lyles resulted in a daughter, Renee, born in 1961. In 1963, Charles had another daughter, this one by Sandra Jean Betts, named Sheila Raye Charles. Sheila Raye, like her father, was a singer/songwriter; she died of breast cancer on June 15, 2017. In 1977, Charles had a child with his Parisian lover Arlette Kotchounian whom he met in 1967. His long-term girlfriend and partner at the time of his death was Norma Pinella.

Charles fathered a total of 12 children with ten different women:

Charles held a family luncheon for his 12 children in 2002, ten of whom attended. He told them he was mortally ill and $500,000 had been placed in trusts for each of the children to be paid out over the next five years.