Karl Malone is universally recognized as one of the greatest players in the history of the NBA. Having been teammates with John Stockton for two decades on the Utah Jazz, he racked up points on a nightly basis, currently serving as the 3rd all time leading scorer in regular season history behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and LeBron James.
Advertisement
However, off the court, the Jazz legend doesn’t have that great of a reputation. This stems from the fact that he once got a 13-year-old girl named Gloria Bell pregnant while he was 20 years old. This is a crime all throughout the United States given that Bell was a minor at the time of this happening.
Malone would avoid any sentencing but was taken to court by Gloria’s grandparents. They demanded that Karl pay $200 per week in child support. He refused to do so but was ordered to pay them $125 per week, once again, leading to ‘The Mailman’ refusing to do so.
Demetress Bell growing up without Karl Malone
Eventually, some time between 1988 and 1989, many years after the incident had taken place, Karl Malone settled with the Bells outside of court for an undisclosed amount of money. Malone would go about his life as an affluent NBA player and Gloria and her grandparents were tasked with raising Demetress.
It’s been said by Demetress himself that he had no contact with his biological father during his childhood and that he was raised solely by his mother. Bell would actually go on to do quite well for himself as he played in the NFL for 5 seasons, having been drafted by the Buffalo Bills and then playing one season for the Eagles.
Demetress did go on to reveal that in 2014, he reconnected with his father and by 2018, they had begun speaking to each other on a regular basis. This unfortunately, doesn’t erase the fact that Karl reportedly told Demetress while he was 17-years-old that it was ‘too late’ for him to be a father to him.
Karl Malone has a total of 7 children with 4 being from his wife, Kay Kinsey and two being from his high school girlfriend, Bonita Ford. He had children, Daryl and Cheryl, with Ford when he was just 17 and refused to be a part of their lives until they turned 17.
