Who is Chaka Khan’s Ex-husband Richard Holland?
Richard Holland is the ex-husband of Chaka Khan. Richard Holland’s ex-wife, Khan is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. Her career has spanned more than five decades, beginning in the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the funk band Rufus. Known as the “Queen of Funk”, Khan was the first R&B artist to have a crossover hit featuring a rapper, with “I Feel for You” in 1984. Khan has won ten Grammy Awards and has sold an estimated 70 million records worldwide.
Richard Holland is a songwriter music producer and real estate agent who came into the limelight after he and Chaka Khan tied the knot.
How did Richard Holland and Chaka Khan meet?
How did the two former love birds meet and started their relationship? The is no information regarding the circumstances that lead to their paths crossing and the two eventually getting married.
However, Richard Holland is the second man Khan married. Before Richard, Khan‘s first marriage was to Hassan Khan, in 1970, when she was 17, which ended in divorce a short time later. Khan married her second husband, Richard Holland, in 1976. The marriage reportedly caused a rift between Khan and several members of Rufus, in particular, Andre Fischer.
Richard Holland wanted her to tone down her sexy stage image, but she refused. Following their split in 1979, Khan spent time in the studio with Ike Turner who she said was a “real inspiration and a catalyst emotionally and in other ways as well” during that difficult time. Holland filed for divorce in 1980, citing “irreconcilable differences.”
The couple was married for 4 years before calling it a quit. Their four years marriage was blessed with a child Damien Holland.
Khan has admitted to being involved in a very hostile situation with her then-husband, Richard Holland. It all went down while Chaka was 8 months pregnant with their son, Damien, and she ended up doing the unthinkable.
Typically when we think of domestic disputes, we usually think of the man being the aggressor, Chaka said this particular incident was provoked by her. In her 2003 memoir, “Through The Fire,” Chaka had previously detailed the dangerous incident but didn’t disclose who the man was. It wasn’t until 2012 that she revealed it was her ex-husband, Richard, whom she’d once fired multiple shots at during a very hostile argument.
She stated that one night in 1976, she called Holland to let him know she was on her way home had forgotten her house keys, therefore, requesting him to leave the keys in their secret hiding spot. She says that when she finally returned home, the keys were not there, so she had to break a window to get in. This pissed her off and once Richard arrived later that evening, Chaka explained what happened:
Via Wenn: [Chaka] tells National Enquirer, “I went for the shotgun, loaded it, pulled the trigger. I missed him because as soon as he saw the gun, he high-tailed it into the office, slammed the door, and turned out the lights.” Khan…called police for help, but lied to authorities and blamed the shooting incident on an intruder. She continues, “When I came to my senses, as blood trickled from the wound above my eye, I wanted to damn myself to hell that Milini (her then-four-year-old daughter) had witnessed something like this. Not that it was the first fight she ever saw, but it was definitely the worst. I called the cops and made like there was an intruder in the house.”
When the cops arrived at Chaka’s house, they apparently didn’t believe her story, so they arrested her husband instead. Following the incident, Chaka had a chance to calm down and soon realized the gravity of her actions:
“So there I was, an almost felon, the mother of a five-year old, with another baby on the way, a screwed up marriage and bills on top of bills. And there were thousands of women out there envying Chaka Khan, thinking if only they were me.”
Needless to say, Chaka’s trigger happy moment led to the end of her marriage to Richard Holland, for whom she wrote her hit song “Sweet Thing.”
Richard Holland’s son Damien Holland
R&B icon Chaka Khan’s worse nightmare came true when her then-25-year-old son with Richard Holland was arrested for the murder of a 17-year-old boy, Christopher Baily. He pleaded not guilty to the murder before being released on $2 million bail. Damien Holland later escaped the murder charge because Los Angeles police don’t have enough evidence against him. Read more about him here
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