Cindy Breakspeare

Cynthia Jean Cameron Breakspeare (born October 24, 1954) is a Canadian-Jamaican jazz singer, musician and beauty queen. Breakspeare was crowned Miss World 1976. Breakspeare is the mother of reggae musician Damian Marley, through her relationship with Bob Marley, who remained married to Rita Marley until his death. Marley is said to have written the song "Turn Your Lights Down Low" about her. ^[1]

Life and career

Breakspeare was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to a white Jamaican father, Louis Cameron Breakspeare, and a white Canadian mother of British origin, Marguerite Cochrane. She has three brothers and one sister.^[2] Louis Cameron Breakspeare (the son of John Cameron Breakspeare and Mavis Louise Haughton Sanguinetti) was Jamaican, and had British, French, and Sephardi Jewish ancestry. John was the son of Thomas John Breakspeare & Charlotte Emeline Hall. Mavis was the daughter of Edmund Haughton Sanguinetti and Jessie Louise Verley, who had French and Sephardi Jewish ancestry. The Sanguinetti family descends from an Italian Jew.' ^[3]

Breakspeare moved to Jamaica when she was four years old, and attended the Immaculate Conception High School, graduating in 1973. As a teenager, Breakspeare participated in beauty pageants, including Miss Jamaica Body Beautiful and Miss Universe Bikini. She was invited to participate in the Miss World competition in 1976 held in London. Despite Jamaica's 1970s government banning Jamaicans from participating in competitions that included South Africa under its apartheid rules,^[4] Breakspeare accepted the invitation and won the title on November 19, 1976,^[5] becoming the second Jamaican to do so.^[6] Interesting to note that Cindy didn't face the backlash from society that Lawrence Rowe and the South African rebel tours cricketers got for doing similar during that time period. ^{[citation needed]}

Personal life

Breakspeare had a relationship with reggae musician Bob Marley beginning in 1976, lasting until his death in 1981. Despite being married to Rita Marley, Marley was in relationships with several other women around this time, including Pascaline Bongo, and Yvette Crichton who gave birth to his child in 1981. From Cindy's relationship with Marley she gave birth to a son, Damian Marley (aka Jr. Gong), in 1978.^[7] Three years later, Breakspeare married senator Tom Tavares-Finson on July 19, 1981 (2 months after Bob’s death),^[8] with whom she has a son, Christian (b. 1982), and a daughter, Leah (b. 1986). Breakspeare and Tavares-Finson later divorced in 1994. Breakspeare married musician Rupert Bent II in 1999. Breakspeare has been pursuing her career as a recording artist and entrepreneur. She founded a Rastafarian craft store called Ital Craf in Jamaica. Breakspeare has four grandsons from her three children.^[9] Breakspeare remains a personality in Jamaica, occasionally featuring in local media.^[10]

Filmography

• Marley (2012), interviewee

References

External links

• Jamaican Hall Of Fame: Cindy Breakspeare

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Wilnelia Merced	Miss World 1976	Succeeded by Mary Stävin

This page was last edited on 10 June 2024, at 00:43