Michael Jordan: The Problem Between His Ex-Wife ”Juanita Vanoy” Before They Tied The Knot In 1989 Reveal

When Vanoy and Jordan got married in November of 1989, at the Little White Chapel in Las Vegas, they were already the parents of a son, Jeffrey Jordan, who was born the year prior. At first, Jordan did not believe Jeffery was his son. “She told me she was pregnant, unwed, and that the father of the child was Michael Jordan,”

 

 

Vanoy’s attorney Michael Minton said to The Washington Post about meeting with her in July 1988. “She felt she could not get Michael’s attention or cooperation or response without the retention of a legal representative.” Jordan later “admitted paternity within a few months,” and when they tied the knot in Vegas, Jeffrey was at the wedding.

 

 

 

 

“I’m happy. It was a big move getting married,” Jordan said, according to The Washington Post. “It helped me mature.” In a 1992 interview, Juanita revealed that contrary to sensational tabloid stories at the time that claimed she was “a groupie” or that she “fell in front of [Michael’s] car” in order to meet him,

 

 

she was actually introduced to Michael by a “mutual friend.” It was as simple as Juanita going to a basketball game with some friends who happened to know Michael, and they all went to dinner after the game. She and Michael hit it off, and the rest, as they say, was history.

This all happened in 1985, and the pair dated until 1989, eventually tying the knot in a casual Las Vegas wedding (“The bride and groom wore jeans,” noted The Washington Post). While Michael is obviously known as a dominating figure on the court, “anyone who knows Juanita Jordan will tell you that she has never been intimidated by

Michael Jordan, never blinded by the basketball legend’s money and fame — and that she always knew where she stood in the game,” according to The Washington Post. Clearly, there’s a lot more to the sports star’s ex-wife than you likely ever knew.

By the time Juanita Vanoy was five months pregnant with her first child with Michael Jordan, the two had been engaged since the previous year, but things had “stalled,” according to The Washington Post. That’s apparently why her lawyer, Michael Milton, who had been hired to draw up a prenuptial agreement for the couple,

was surprised when he “received a surprise phone call from Juanita telling him that she and Michael had gotten married at the Little White Chapel in Las Vegas at 3:30 a.m.” He explained, “I congratulated her and then reminded her that the prenup had not been signed. She told me to work on a postnup.”

It apparently took Milton, who had already been trying to negotiate terms with Jordan’s representatives for two months, an additional year and a half to work things out. While he’s legally bound to keep the exact details of the martial contract under wraps, Jordan’s lawyers later claimed that he had “negotiated terms that were ‘extremely

beneficial and greatly exceeded any statutory benefit Vanoy Jordan would have received under Illinois law.'” Jordan may not have been too pleased by that, however, he did sign the postnup in the first place and you can’t blame the lawyer for simply doing his job (and apparently doing it really well).