Court documents retrieved by The Dallas Morning News and ESPN on March 7 reveal that the owner and president of the Dallas Cowboys, Jerry Jones, is being sued by a 25-year-old woman who claims he is her biological father. The initial filing documents, which are a public record, have now been sealed by the court after a motion was filed by Jones’ legal team.
The plaintiff, Alexandra Davis, is asking the Dallas courts to revoke the terms of a non-disclosure agreement that was signed by her mother and in her name when she was a 1-year-old child.
The agreement provided Cynthia Davis Spencer with a $375,000 payment and a promise of ongoing financial compensation as long as she stayed silent about the potential paternity of Spencer’s daughter.
Now 25 years old and an aide to Texas Republican Representative Ronny Jackson, Davis decided to break the terms of the agreement she was forced into in an effort to set the record straight. According to the lawsuit, Jones never acknowledged that Davis was his daughter and had no contact with her following her birth in 1996.
“It is hard to imagine what could be less in the best interest of a child than to enforce agreements that leave a child without a father and which prevent or legally punish a child from even stating who her father is,” the lawsuit says. “Plaintiff has had to endure the endless public profiles of her father and siblings while forced to remain secret to everyone, including her closest confidants.”
According to the lawsuit, Spencer was working at an American Airlines ticket counter when she met Jones. At the time, Spencer was separated from her husband and was in the process of a divorce. The suit does not state whether the affair was ongoing, nor does it state that Jones ever confirmed that Davis was his biological child.
“Faced with the literal existence of Plaintiff and the public and personal ramifications that would result therefrom, Defendant Jones, forever the deal-making entrepreneur that he is, decided to do what he always does — ‘make a deal’ — to assure that he would not be publicly or privately identified and/or declared as Plaintiff’s father,” the lawsuit says.
“Defendant Jones, with the help of lawyers, knowing that Cynthia was now a single mother with a very young child and an uncertain financial future at best, set out to negotiate a ‘settlement’ that would exchange money for silence,” the lawsuit continues.
Jones, now 79, has been married since 1963 and has three children with his wife, Stephen, Jerry Jr., and Charlotte. Jones would have been 55 when he met Spencer in 1995. Spokespersons representing both the plaintiff and defendant in this matter did not respond to requests for comment.
The lawsuit will be temporarily sealed by the courts until a March 31 hearing. ESPN and The Dallas Morning News have seen copies of the filings.