On Thursday, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson validated that he and his wife of 16 years are going through divorce proceedings. However, he declined to discuss details surrounding the divorce.
Johnson released the statement following reports that records from the proceedings revealed that the mayor supposedly had an affair with a city worker.
Johnson’s wife, Nakita Johnson, has accused the mayor of having an affair and has said that she saw him cheating on her with the employee at their residence in February 2021.
Reports indicate that Johnson confessed to the affair when his wife confronted him about the matter.
In his testimony, the mayor confessed that he and the woman had stayed in the same hotel room during a trip to the Ritz Carlton Montreal. However, he stated that the two didn’t share a bed.
He added the trip happened after Johnson had filed for divorce and after the woman left her job at the City of Dallas. That woman then began a consulting firm in which Mayor Johnson employed as a component of his re-election campaign in 2023.
The lawyer representing Nakita Johnson entered the payments between the campaign and consulting firm as court evidence. This was done to heighten claims of “personal and professional relationships” between the mayor and the ex-staffer.
The woman hasn’t been publicly named but has said that she didn’t know that her name or actions were a part of Johnson’s divorce.