Philip Bailey revealed in his book, Shining Star: Braving The Elements of Earth, Wind & Fire, that he had an affair with a member of a popular soul group and that the affair produced a child that many probably didn’t know about. His wife was obviously infuriated in the beginning, but that didn’t stop Philip from taking care of his responsibilities and becoming a constant figure and loving father to his child. Philip and his child are very close to this day.
During era Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Gratitude” album era was when Philip began becoming the type of husband and father he regrets being to his then wife, Janet, and their children (together). He had an outside relationship with Jeanette Hutchinson of The Emotions and below are a few excerpts from his book, in which he explained, in detail, how it all went down.
Philip Bailey on the downfalls of missing much of his children’s childhoods:
Philip Bailey- During this period of time I became pretty much an absentee father and husband. When Sir was little, he could barely comprehend what I did for a living. All he knew was that I wasn’t there at home, which was unfortunate. I think back to my childhood days when my mother was too busy working to show up at my school concerts. As a parent I now sympathized with the situation and forgave her.
Whenever I did get home, say, for birthday parties for the kids, I might be in the other room asleep, resting up for the next gig or show. As a result, I missed practically all of my children’s back-to -school nights. I also wasn’t there for Sir’s or Trinity’s school dances. That was Janet’s job, to get them prepped for life, and to raise them.
But there were some perks for Bailey’s kids, amid his “neglect”:
PB- There were some fringe benefits for the kids in having a famous dad. They got to wear EWF stage costumes for Halloween! Trinity had the prom dress of a lifetime, and Sir got to drive my Mercedes to his prom. While there was no substitute for their having a full-time dad, my kids enjoyed having nice new cars at an early age and went to great schools and took incredible vacations. While it wasn’t my choice to neglect them, being a away from the family was the nature of the profession. If I was on the road performing, it’s because that’s what I did for a living.
I became more of a supervisor, than a father, telling Janet what she needed to do, or what I expected to be done. It was an unintentional impulse, since I was accustomed to having staff on the road seeing to my needs and getting things done on a timely basis. I was so used to a highly mechanized routine that when I got off the road, I had trouble readjusting to “real life.”
Then came Bailey’s confession about mistress and extramarital baby:
PB- Janet stayed with me through some tricky time. When I came home to Los Angeles from touring one night in 1978, I had a confession to make. I told Janet, “I have something to tell you. I’m having a baby.”
At the time Janet was pregnant with Creed, our third child. “I know,” she said. “We’re having Creed.”
“No,” I said. “I mean, I’m having another baby.” And I had to confess to her that I had had an affair on the road with Jeanette Hutchinson from The Emotions and that she was pregnant with my child.
Janet threw a huge fit so I put her out on the front porch to cool off.
Philip Bailey’s extramarital affairs took extreme toll on his wife, Janet:
PB- Janet had her hands full raising our kids. (In addition to Sir James, who was born in September 1971, and Trinity Donet, who was born in March 1975, we would have Creed Ellington Bailey, names after my heroes Creed Taylor and Duke Ellington, who arrived in January 1978, and Philip Doron Bailey, who was born in August 1981.) As a mother, she was strict in terms of discipline. The children didn’t dare cross Janet or lie to her, but when it came to social activities, she was more permissive than I was (when I was around). When I was in town, the family adhered to a stricter, more regimented set of home rules, and once I left to go out on tour, it would revert back to Janet’s way of running the household and being more lenient.
Looking back, I realized that Janet suffered as a result of my extramarital activities. She was a great mom, but she would hibernate in her room a lot, going through down periods and dealing with her sadness, especially after my affair with Jeanette. She was dealing with her own life issues of raising the children and running the household without me. After we moved the family back to Denver for a few years, Trinity had memories as a young girl of sharing a large brass bed with her mother. She would pretend to be asleep but listen to Janet weeping on the telephone and discussing with her aunt Debbie the different women I was involved with at het time. After a while, Janet began to smoke weed and drink E&J brandy to numb her sorrows.
Things Got Worse For Wife:
PB- As Janet suffered through the rejection and isolation she was thrown into, she also started using street pharmaceuticals to mask her pain and hanging out wit people who were far beneath her. I was the “main dude” in the Bailey family and within our social circles, and as my wife, she lived in my shadow. She probably should have kicked me to the curb, but in our reality, we both felt that once you got married, you stayed married, no matter what. Besides, Janet felt she didn’t have the necessary job skills or a college education to start over. What was she going to do with four children without a husband? Divorce scared the hell out of her. Staying together made sense. But with Janet using, and me womanizing on the road, we drifted apart.
Birth of Bailey’s & Jeanette Hutchison’s Baby:
PB- In August 1978 Jeanette gave birth to a daughter she named Pili Asabi Foluke Titilayo Bailey, whom I affectionately call “Pili.” Pili is a Swahili name, meaning “second born.: The rest of her name translates to: Asabi–she is a choice birth; Foluke–placed in care of God; Titilayo–where happiness is eternal. Janet was pragmatic about the situation. She decided there was nothing she could do about it, so she accepted it. Whenever I wanted to visit with Pili, Janet insisted that I bring her to the house, and nowadays she’s part of the extended Bailey family. Pili and I are very close. Today she’s a successful career woman who has college degrees and is happily married with a son who is my seventh grandchild.
Philip Bailey and Jeanette Hutchinson’s daughter, Pili Bailey:
Like we always say, there is a lot to be learned from the lives of our favorite celebs. Regardless of if their truths are good, bad, or ugly- there are lessons of what, and what not to do in all of them. We commend Philip Bailey for publicly man’ing up to his faults and shortcomings. Janet Bailey deserves the most respect of them all for being able to set aside her personal pain and welcome Philip’s and Jeanette’s daughter, Pili Bailey, with open arms.
