Michael Jordan has always been a larger-than-life character. He has lived his life like an accountant, each step calculated, balanced. For Jordan, every moment was important and he was keen on never giving journalists and critics any reason to drag his name through the mud. However, success leaves even the strongest armor riddled with holes. Michael, in 1988, after signing a $25 million contract with the Bulls, was almost slapped with a paternity suit by his wife Juanita.
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Before all of this, before the birth of his first son Jeffrey, Michael and Vanoy had already been through a rough patch. When she first conceived Jeffrey, MJ’s parents had been sufficiently hostile toward their son’s love interest.
They believed that she was trying to take advantage of her pregnancy. An accusation of this magnitude obviously didn’t sit well with Vanoy but she still continued to be with Michael.
But, unfortunately, for the entirety of the time from conceiving Jeffrey to the time of their marriage, Juanita went through a difficult time. And she almost snapped once.
Juanita Vanoy considered slapping a paternity suit on Michael Jordan
The current Michael Jordan is no stranger to a paternity suit. He’s been through a few. In fact, he was so annoyed by Pamela Smith that MJ got the judge handling his case to pay for his legal fees.
But in 1988, MJ was still young and had not faced any such crisis. He has just signed a $25 million extension deal with the Bulls and was nearing the peak of his career.
So, when a troubled Juanita considered slapping her child’s father with a paternity suit, MJ would have had a lot more difficulty dealing with it. In his book Michael Jordan: The Life, Roland Lazenby wrote about this in detail.
“Three weeks into the season, Juanita Vanoy had given birth to a boy, Jeffrey Michael, but Jordan’s parents still opposed their son marrying the mother of his child. The birth of the baby was kept hush-hush throughout the season. Some writers knew about it but kept it out of their reports. Vanoy supposedly contemplated a paternity suit for about six months but ultimately decided to hold off. The tension was as thick in his personal life as it was in the locker room”
Jordan and Vanoy separated in 2006
Vanoy and Michael married less than a year after the birth of their son. After tying the knot in 1989, the two went on to have 3 children together.
However, things didn’t last as long as they would have thought. In 2002, MJ and Juanita filed for divorce. But the two managed to save their marriage and continued till 2006. That is when they finally separated in a divorce that proved quite costly for Michael.
