Berry Gordy’s Net Worth Collection and Real Estate

Berry Gordy is the owner of Motown Records, a highly profitable and successful musical label that generates most of Gordy’s income. Berry Gordy’s net worth is $400 million. By 1966, Motown had 450 employees and a revenue of $20 million which is $144 million in today’s currencies.

Berry Gordy sold his ownership in Motown to MCA Records for $61 million that is $120 million in today's money in 1988.
Berry Gordy has a net worth of $400 million.
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The artist sold his ownership in Motown to MCA Records for $61 million which is $120 million in today’s money in 1988. He also sold EMI Publishing his stake in the Motown song catalogue managed by his business Jobete Publishing. He has 15,000 songs in his collection, 240 of which he authored himself. Polygram purchased the entire Motown repertoire a few years later for $330 million.

The producer sold his Malibu property to entertainment executive Michael Ovitz for $6 million in 1997. He’d possessed the house since 1975. In 2014, Gordy sold an apartment in Century City, California, for $2 million. Gordy’s Bel-Air home is the crown jewel of his real estate empire. In 1976, he purchased his first piece in Bel-Air.

Gordy grew throughout the years, and now he owns three adjacent parcels that form a 4-acre compound. The main house on the property is 10,000 square feet and has 13 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms. He also owns a 5,000-square-foot mansion on a nearby lot. The Bel Air properties are estimated to be worth between $50 and $70 million.

Berry Gordy’s Relationship and Affairs

Berry Gordy has been married and divorced three times, and he has eight children in total. After returning from the Korean War, he married his first wife, Thelma Louise Coleman, in Toledo, Ohio, in 1953. Six years later, in 1959, they divorced. Gordy and Coleman have three children together including Sherry Gordy.

Berry Gordy has been married and divorced three times
Berry Gordy with Diana Ross and Rhonda.
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From 1960 until 1964, Gordy was married to his second wife, Raynoma Mayberry Liles. They have one son together Kerry Gordy. Berry married his third wife, Grace Eaton, in 1990, and they divorced in 1993. Gordy is also the father of a daughter by Jeana Jackson, a son by Margaret Norton, and a daughter by singer Diana Ross, and Nancy Leiviska.

Berry Gordy’s Early Life

Berry Gordy III, also known professionally as Berry Gordy Jr., was born on November 28, 1929, in Detroit, Michigan. He was the seventh of eight children. Gordy and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter share the same great-grandfather, Georgian plantation owner James Gordy. His grandpa was born on his farm to James Gord.

The successful record producer dropped out of high school in the 11th grade to pursue a professional boxing career. That career was short-lived, as he was shortly inducted into the Army during the Korean War. Gordy founded a record store named 3-D Record Mart after returning from the war. The store specialized in selling jazz recordings to a predominantly African-American clientele. Gordy also created songs in his spare time, “Reet Petite,” became a hit for vocalist Jackie Wilson. Gordy began composing and producing full-time with the proceeds from “Reet Petite.”

In 1959, with an $800 loan from his family, Gordy launched Tamla Records, an R&B label. The first track released by Tamla was Marv Johnson’s “Come to Me,” and it was a success. The song “Bad Girl” by The Miracles was released the same year under Gordy’s second label, Motown, and proved to be a success as well. He soon merged Tamla and Motown into the Motown Record Corporation in late 1959.

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