From the Chicago Tribune

Mom of Jesse Jackson's baby: 'I'm no blackmailer'

By Don Terry and Monica Davey, Tribune Staff Writers

Published May 8 2001, 12:29 AM EDT

LOS ANGELES -- The mother of Rev. Jesse Jackson's out-of-wedlock child ended four months of silence Monday, saying she has grown worried about her reputation and that she wants Jackson to formalize a support agreement in court.

"I really need to clear up the misinformation about me," Karin Stanford said in an interview from her home in Baldwin Hills. "I'm not a blackmailer. I've never received any payoff money."

The 39-year-old author and former professor added: "Please don't call me a mistress. That implies a kept woman. I am not that."

In the interview Monday, Stanford, once a top aide in Jackson's largest non-profit group, described a romantic relationship with Jackson that began several years ago, but reached a painful impasse in recent months over finalizing a support agreement for their daughter.

In January, as a supermarket tabloid prepared to reveal their affair, the 59-year-old married civil rights leader acknowledged that he was the father of Stanford's child, who turns 2 this month. In wave after wave of media scrutiny that followed, Stanford remained silent as Jackson spoke publicly.

In those months, too, she said, her relationship with Jackson has frayed. "Since this story broke, we're having trouble communicating," she said. "We never had trouble communicating before."

Eventually, Stanford said she filed a lawsuit seeking a formal child support agreement on behalf of their daughter because she wanted to bring "closure" to a year of conversations with Jackson's representatives. "I wanted to make sure my daughter was protected and her financial future would be stable, especially considering my health," said Stanford, who survived cancer.

Stanford, who wrote a book about Jackson's efforts in foreign policy, began working as a research consultant for Jackson's Citizenship Education Fund in May 1996, she said.

"I think we shared similar political beliefs, similar ideas about plight of the poor. I was just as committed to the organization as anyone else."

She was hired on full-time about a year later, shortly after being diagnosed with breast cancer.

Then last year, Stanford said, Jackson made it clear that he hoped she would never speak publicly about their romance. In August, Jackson's attorney faxed Stanford a confidentiality agreement, apparently pledging never to speak publicly about their relationship or their child.

Once she saw what it was, she didn't read it. Nor did she sign it.

"I was very surprised," she said. "Rev. Jackson and I didn't have that kind of relationship that we would need a confidentiality agreement," she said. "I think it's his people trying to protect him."

"I just put it to the side," she said. "I just refused to deal with it. I didn't want to be in the position of not being able to defend myself or my daughter if the need arose."

Then a second document -- about 10 pages -- arrived three or four weeks ago, she said. "I did not read the second one either. I just refused to deal with it."

Lou Colasuonno, Jackson's New York spokesman, acknowledged that Jackson had "encouraged" confidentiality "in the interest of protecting the child from the glare of the media." As a protection for the young girl, Colasuonno said, "We would be in favor of a confidentiality agreement."

As for Stanford's decision to speak publicly for the first time this week, Colasuonno said: "She is free to speak." But he added, "We have always thought that less attention for the child's sake is best."

What had been a quiet, behind-the-scenes negotiation over child support payments became public last month after Stanford filed a civil lawsuit in California. In her suit, she sought formal child-support payments and visitation arrangements. She said she filed the papers after nearly a year of talks had failed to produce a final agreement.

A hearing on the matter, scheduled for Wednesday, has been postponed at the request of Jackson's representatives, Stanford said. Now the case is not expected to be heard until late summer.

Stanford said she wants the courts to determine what her daughter should be getting. In California, that is based on a 10-step formula that takes into account the mother's and father's incomes.

Jackson, who has been paying about $3,000 each month without a court-approved agreement, has estimated his annual salary at about $430,000 a year. Stanford, who made more than $100,000 a year when she worked for a Jackson organization until late 1999, now works as a consultant to Yucaipa Cos., led by Jackson's friend Ron Burkle. She declined to discuss her salary there.

Stanford said Jackson has not seen their daughter since December -- the month before the disclosures about Jackson became public.

Jackson's spokesman confirmed that Jackson hasn't visited his daughter since late last year. "This was a conscious decision," Colasuonno said, "for the sake of the child not to allow this to be turned into a circus with the glare of the media. When an agreement is worked out and this has settled down, he will fulfill all his responsibilities."

Contrary to rumors that she was paid large sums from Jackson's charities, Stanford said she received no more than $35,000 as she left Jackson's organizations in 1999 to move to California, where family members live. She offered a version of the last payments -- $20,000 for work on a study on telecommunication and $15,000 as relocation expenses -- that match what Jackson's representatives have described.

During the past few months, Stanford said she has spoken with Jackson on the telephone. When they talk now, she said, "We are both concerned about the kind of public attention we are receiving and the effect it will have on our daughter."

She said communications between them were strong until the story came out. "He has a lot of pressures on him that he did not have before the story broke. I bet they're family pressures he did not have before."

She said she has no intention of damaging Jackson's reputation or his legacy. "He's my daughter's father and I still have a lot of respect for him and the work he does," she said.

The woman whose book analyzed Jackson's historic place in international affairs still praised Jackson's accomplishments. "I really believe the work of PUSH and (Citizenship Education Fund) is sorely needed," she said. "I still consider him a very skilled and charismatic figure and he'll be able to weather this storm."

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2001

Answers

She said she has no intention of damaging Jackson's reputation or his legacy.

Too late!

ROTFLMAO~!~!~!~!~!

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2001