The Cowboys are in the headlines again for reasons that have nothing to do with football.
A woman who grew up in North Texas has filed a lawsuit in Dallas County, alleging that Jerry Jones is her biological father and that the billionaire owner of the Cowboys paid her mother well over a quarter of a million dollars to keep it a secret. Nataly Keomoungkhoun of the Dallas Morning News was first to report the story Wednesday afternoon, the paper having obtained the lawsuit through online court records. That file was subsequently sealed- after a motion filed by Jones’s legal team, says ESPN- ahead of a scheduled March 31 hearing on the matter.
Alexandra Davis, 25, claims that her mother, Cynthia Davis Spencer, had a relationship with Jones in the mid-1990s, when she was working for American Airlines in Little Rock, Arkansas and estranged from her husband.
Alexandra was born in December, 1996. Cynthia and her husband began divorce proceedings shortly thereafter, and genetic testing at that time determined that another man was Alexandra’s father. Cynthia reportedly told Jones that he was the girl’s father, but Jones, who was helping to pay for the woman’s divorce case, responded that he was unable to have children, according to court documents.
The lawsuit claims that a deal was struck between Jones and Cynthia: Jones would provide financial support for the mother and child, with the condition that his identity was never revealed publicly. A lump sum payment of $375,000 was paid to Cynthia, and two trusts were set up for Alexandra, to be funded by Jones. Alexandra was to receive “certain monthly, annual and special funding” from the trusts until she turned 21, and then additional lump sums upon turning 24, 26, and 28.
Alexandra, who was a year old at the time of the settlement, was prohibited from ever seeking to legally establish paternity. While Jones and Cynthia have reportedly been in contact, the owner and Alexandra have never met. Alexandra alleges that Jones “abandoned and shunned” her, forcing her to live in secrecy for her entire childhood, adolescence, college years at nearby SMU, and into adulthood.
She is now asking the court to be legally recognized as Jones’s daughter and to be released from the confidentiality agreement her mother signed. She maintains that she has never disclosed Jones’s identity as her father except to gain FBI security clearance to work in the White House for a little over a year during the Trump administration. She now works as an aide to U.S Representative Ronny Jackson of Texas.
Both Alexandra and Cynthia Davis starred for a time on the reality TV series Big Rich Texas.
As per the Dallas Morning News report, it is unclear why Alexandra has filed the lawsuit at this time, though the lawsuit does make mention of health concerns regarding her mother.
Jerry Jones and his wife Gene, married since 1963, have three children: Stephen, Jerry Jr., and Charlotte Jones Anderson.
Jones and the Cowboys were at the center of a scandal last month involving retired PR man Rich Dalrymple and four Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. The cheerleaders claimed that they caught Dalrymple spying on them as they changed clothes in a locker room in 2015. Jones and the team paid the cheerleaders $2.4 million in a confidential settlement and non-disclosure agreement. A fan also accused Dalrymple in a sworn affadavit of taking “upskirt” photos of Charlotte Jones Anderson during a livestream of the 2015 NFL draft.
Jones has been out of the spotlight since the Dalrymple story broke, only briefly glossing over the scandal in a pre-arranged TV interview for a charity event and then appearing at a press conference at AT&T Stadium to promote a boxing event. He did not take questions regarding anything other than the fight. Last week, Jones declined making his usual appearance at the NFL scouting combine. He cited a “medical issue,” while Stephen blamed a project his father was working on with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for taking up much of his time.
Attorneys for Jones could not be reached by the newspaper for comment on the Alexandra Davis lawsuit. Jim Wilkinson, personal spokesperson for the Cowboys owner, declined to comment.
[listicle id=694700]
[listicle id=693967]
[listicle id=694719]
[lawrence-newsletter]