NEW YORK -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson has fathered an out-of-wedlock daughter with a top aide -- whom he even brought to the White House while pregnant to meet President Clinton.
The famed civil rights leader recently told stunned family and friends about his affair with employee Karin Stanford, 39, who gave birth to the couple's love child in May 1999 - months after Jackson began counseling Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky adultery scandal.
"This is no time for evasions, denials or alibis," Jackson said in a public statement on the scandal released early Thursday. "I fully accept responsibility and I am truly sorry for my actions.
"As her mother does, I love this child very much and have assumed responsibility for her emotional and financial support since she was born."
The blockbuster scandal was first revealed by The National Enquirer newspaper, which hits the stands on Friday. It was confirmed Wednesday by the Daily News.
The affair apparently has been devastating to Jackson's 38-year marriage to his wife, Jackie, who has stood by her husband publicly.
"It's been very painful for his family," one person close to Jackson said. "And he has been attempting to work through this with them."
In his statement on Thursday, Jackson said he was praying with his wife and children and "through God's grace we have been reconciling.
Jackson also said he knew that he had disappointed many of his close friends and followers by his actions. "I ask for their forgiveness, understanding and prayers," Jackson said.
His confession is likely to cast a pall over his reputation, both as a moral voice and as director of the Rainbow Coalition, the nonprofit civil rights group he heads.
According to The Enquirer, Jackson, 59, reportedly pays Stanford, the former director of the coalition's Washington office, $10,000 a month in child support.
Stanford also told The Enquirer that she received $40,000 in "moving expenses" just before she left the Rainbow Coalition for Los Angeles on maternity leave - a sum that is raising hackles within the nonprofit group.
"Yes, Jesse gave me $40,000, but it didn't have anything to do with me having his child - that was just for moving expenses," Stanford told the paper.
The paper quoted a friend saying that Jackson and Stanford remain close.
"She cares for Jesse very much and is very happy to have his child," the friend said.
There was a bitter confrontation at one point between the two women, according to the tabloid, during which the mother of Jackson's five children reportedly thundered, "There will only be one Mrs. Jesse Jackson in this lifetime - and that's me!"
Official White House photos also show that Jackson brought Stanford to the White House to meet Clinton in December 1998 - when she was four months pregnant. The child was born the following May, months after Jackson began comforting the First Lady and Chelsea Clinton over the Oval Office scandal and praying with the President.
In one of his more famous commentaries on the Lewinsky scandal, a forgiving Jackson said, "Sex is not the one string on the guitar. There are nine more commandments."
In August 1998, well after Jackson and Stanford became romantically involved, the preacher told an Ohio audience about Clinton's contrition, adding, "It takes an awful lot to face a wife and daughter and live with the fallout."
The brainy and attractive Stanford apparently met Jackson in the mid-1990s when she was teaching at the University of Georgia, where she was an assistant professor of political science and African-American studies.
Jackson became the subject of her doctoral dissertation. She followed up with a book, "Beyond the Boundaries: Reverend Jesse Jackson in International Affairs," printed in 1997 by the State University of New York Press.
But the book apparently spawned a different kind of affair.
The Enquirer reported that it was during her research for the book that the relationship took hold - right under the nose of Jackson's wife, who had allowed interviews for the book to be held in the family home.
The minister was apparently so impressed with the book, which recounts his trips to Syria, Central America, Cuba and other hot spots, that he hired Stanford away from the University of Georgia.
She remains on the payroll as a part-time researcher for the Rainbow Coalition. |
