Bob Johnson’s wife, Lauren Wooden, parted ways with him in 2020. The couple got married in 2016 when she was pursuing an international business-management doctorate in Paris.
Bob Johnson has been in the headlines recently when her former girlfriend Debra Lee revealed that Bob threatened her career when Debra attempted to break up with him.
In her new biography, ‘I Am Debra Lee, ‘ former BET CEO disclosed that she and BET founder Bob Johnson had a private affair while both were married to other persons.
Debra talked about the incident with Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts, first referring to Johnson as a “mentor” responsible for much of her success before explaining the timeframe of their affair.
“We did have a relationship while we were both married, we ended up both divorced, and then people knew about the relationship, the company knew, the public, we started going places together.”
Debra said that she wanted to break up but saw that it was not a long-term relationship and her job and career were over her head.
That was Debra’s 20 years into her career at BET so she would have lost everything.
In a second interview with The Washington Post, Lee repeated her claims that Johnson threatened her career if she left him.
Debra further explained, “Oh yeah, I was told that many times. It’s like, Okay, if you’re going to break up with me, let’s get on the phone and tell people you are leaving right now, and as a working mother, how does one recover from something like that? How does one say, the man I worked for for 20 years won’t give me a recommendation and fired me because we were in a relationship and now it’s over.”
Debra also felt the need to explain why she was chosen to speak on the matter in her new memoir, and she said that they both heard so much about the guys who came to the door with their robes open and came out n*ked.
That was not the kind of experience she had. It turned into a plot where her job was at issue anytime she thought about breaking up the alleged relationship.
That was very much s*xual harassment, but it was a different kind of s*xual harassment. Debra wanted young women to know that if they are in an uneven relationship regarding the power structure, it can turn abusive.
Bob Johnson’s wife: Received a seven-and-a-half-carat engagement ring
Bob Johnson, the United States’ first black self-made billionaire, married his girlfriend in front of 100 close friends in California.
Bob, 76, the founder of BET, married Lauren Wooden, a 43-year-old woman who was pursuing an international business-management doctorate degree in Napa Valley, Paris, in 2016.
The second wedding for both occurred in front of well-known faces, including music executive L.A. Reid, former Clinton chief of staff Mack McLarty, and actor Leon Robinson, at the Auberge du Soleil.
Bob proposed to Lauren in Paris in December 2015 with assistance from his best man, Franco Nuschese, who runs Georgetown’s Cafe Milano.
The jaw-dropping proposal started with an ice sculpture of the Eiffel Tower, a bottle of Dom Perignon, and a shower of rose petals. After a private after-hours trip and dinner at the Musee Rodin, Bob ended with the kicker, a seven-and-a-half-carat engagement ring.
However, Bob proposed to Wooden before. He asked her to marry him on their very first date, and after five years, she agreed and accepted Bob’s marriage proposal.
Bob once told the Washington Post that he had found the absolute, unequivocally right person for him. Happiness only started to describe how he felt.
Bob became the United States of America’s first black billionaire right after he sold BET to Viacom for 3 billion dollars in stock and assumed debt in 2000.
The company has since taken a plunge in value, so Bob’s net worth has dropped to 550 million dollars.
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