“He wanted to take me shopping. So afterwards, we went out to eat, and he was looking at me, and from what I hear, he was practicing what he was going to say to me,” Loveless says. “But, he was looking at me and said, ‘Look. I’ve got something to tell you. And I really want to tell you this. I think in love with you, I think I’m falling in love with you.’
“And the only thing I could come back and say to him was ‘I’m flattered!'” Loveless adds with a laugh.
Loveless and Gordy Jr. eloped on Feb. 6, 1989, in Gatlinburg, Tenn., but unlike most newlyweds, they didn’t tell anyone that they were married … for a year and a half! The lovebirds wanted to show others that Loveless could stand on her own two feet and wasn’t relying on her new husband to make it big — but Loveless recalls that secretive time as very trying.
“It was so difficult for me. Especially with him — our musician friends would say … ‘We heard that you guys …,’ and we’d go, ‘Oh, nah, nu-uh, no …,'” she remembers. “It was so difficult! But we wanted people out there to know that I was standing on my own.”