A 25-year-old woman is suing Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, alleging that the billionaire paid her mother hundreds of thousands of dollars in 1996 to conceal that he was the girl's biological father, a secret that the lawsuit says she has carried her entire life.
At the age of 1, the girl was bound to secrecy by a confidentiality agreement signed by her mother, according to the lawsuit.
Jones denied in settlement documents that he was the biological father of the child. But he paid the woman $375,000 "in exchange for confidentiality" and had an Arkansas friend and lawyer named Donald Jack set up two trusts for the girl linked to her and her mother, keeping Jones' paternity a secret, according to the lawsuit, a copy of which was obtained by ESPN.