We are moving from one MJ to another, one with closer ties to Chicago: Michael Jordan. The greatest basketball player in history is once again the target of a paternity suit.
The woman claims Jordan is the father of her 2-year-old daughter and is demanding an undisclosed amount in child support from the superstar. Jordan, 50, retired from basketball in 2003 but continues to be a top earner, bringing in an estimated $80 million per year. Entertainment news outlets report that he has responded with accusations that the woman is a fortune-hunter.
Jordan has also filed a countersuit against the woman, as he did in another paternity/child support case earlier this year. The woman in that case claimed Jordan was the father of her 17-year-old son; the court tossed out the suit after learning that the child’s paternity had been established definitively a decade earlier. Rather than collecting money from Jordan, she was ordered to pay his legal fees in the matter. She has since forged a career hosting a website and billing herself as a love and sex expert.
This latest claim seems to have been prompted by Jordan’s April wedding. The lavish event reportedly cost $10 million and was attended by A-list celebrities. The plaintiff reportedly responded to coverage of the wedding by chastising Jordan in a post on her Facebook page; he was spending all this money on his wedding, she said, but he had yet to step up to support his 2-year-old daughter.
In the last case, Jordan’s attorneys demanded a DNA test before court records revealed the identity of the child’s biological father. So far, no such demand has surfaced in this case.
Source: Daily Mail, “Oops! Michael Jordan fights ANOTHER paternity suit,” Matthew Hall, Sept. 27, 2013
