“I am a Golf Widow”: Having Signed Michael Jordan’s $50,000 Gambling Checks, Juanita Vanoy Opened up About her Husband’s Obsession

Though Juanita Vanoy and Michael Jordan‘s marriage ended after years of conflict, they were once like every other couple. Jordan and Vanoy started dating just as Jordan entered the league. The young superstar found in his future wife’s companionship, a certain escape from his overturned life. Juanita was mature and Michael loved that about her.

But as their relationship progressed, the off-court struggles coupled with the growing quarrel between James Jordan and Deloris only activated escapism in MJ. While Vanoy was his escape from the Jordans, golf was his escape from the world and all its never-ending worries. MJ, apart from the basketball court, was the happiest on a golf course.

Vanoy, the understanding wife she was, later in life accepted her husband’s one true obsession. In an intimate interview back in 1992, Vanoy opened up about being a ‘Golf widow.’

Juanita Vanoy accepted her fate as a ‘Golf Widow’

A golf widow is a wife whose husband spends most of his time on the golf course. If anyone in the world was ever a golf widow, it was Juanita Vanoy. Michael’s love for golf in the 90s and 2000s was legendary. The Bulls superstar gambled away large sums of money, always relying on his skills with a club.

Fortunately, she was okay with her husband’s vice. She knew he needed an outlet and golf was it. But Juanita was more than accepting, she even supported Michael’s love for golfing. In her own words, despite being a golf widow, Juanita Vanoy gifted MJ a set of golf clubs on their anniversary.

Vanoy: “I am a golf widow. However, we just celebrated our anniversary and I got a set of golf clubs.“

Unfortunately, this support would later turn MJ’s obsession into a full-blown problem. While golf in itself was harmless, Jordan began betting on his golf games frequently. Soon, gambling would become a defining trait of his personality. A trait that also dragged Vanoy into his debts.

Vanoy once wrote $50,000 checks to pay Michael Jordan’s gambling debt

In his book Michael Jordan: The Life, author Roland Lazenby wrote how Michael and Esquinas, Jordan’s gambling buddy, had a falling out. Even then MJ still had to pay his debt back to Esquinas. However, Juanita had to write those checks.

“Esquinas’s days with Jordan, however, had come to an end. They would continue to wrangle over the golfing losses, with various estimates suggesting that Jordan paid somewhere between $200,000 and $300,000, some of it in a series of $50,000 checks written by Juanita Jordan.”

The relationship worsened with the increase in MJ’s gambling issues. In addition, there were clear cases of Michael’s infidelity in the public. It all got too much for Vanoy who divorced the Bulls legend in 2006.