Suzen Johnson
Suzen Johnson (born February 1951) is a former flight attendant, businesswoman, and model. She had an affair with sports reporter Frank Gifford in April and May 1997. The two were photographed together,[1] bringing embarrassment to Gifford and his wife, Kathie Lee.
==Life and career==PLEASE GET THIS CORRECT, I WAS NOT PAID TO HAVE ANY RELATIONSHIP WITH FG I HAD A 22 Years history with the man... may he lay in peace... he knows of his betrayals...
okay, it is about time people know of his romantic history.
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Affair with Gifford
At the end of April and beginning of May 1997, Johnson spent a week with Gifford at the Regency Hotel, in Manhattan.[2] Unbeknownst to Gifford, the weekly tabloid The Globe bugged the hotel room, concealing video cameras and eavesdropping equipment to document the affair, for which to publish the story later that May. The Globe reportedly paid Johnson, with sums mentioned from $75,000 to $125,000.
Aftermath
In the November following the Gifford scandal, Johnson appeared on the cover of Playboy, and appeared in a nude pictorial inside that issue.[3]
The extent to which the Globe went "to get the story" became a news issue in itself.[4][5] In January 1999, the National Enquirer published a story about the Globe paying Johnson for the story about the affair,[6] and in June 1999, she sued the publisher of The Globe, claiming that she was told the newspaper only wanted to write about their platonic relationship, and the paper had wired their hotel room without telling her.[7] Johnson said she signed an agreement with the tabloid in March 1997 in which Globe officials offered $25,000 for the Gifford story, and an additional $25,000 for a photo of them together.
In 2001, she ran a website called "SuzenJohnson.com: Frank Gifford's Mistress Tells All", with her image from the Playboy cover. On the site, she wrote about her faith and her battles with the tabloids, had a picture gallery, and intended to have fitness information, a members section, and a store.[8] The site closed in 2002.
References
- ^ Elizabeth Johns (May 16, 1997). "Photos Embarrass Giffords". E! Online news. Archived from the original on 10 May 2000.
- ^ Archived 2001-06-09 at the Wayback Machine SuzenJohnson.com
- ^ Frank Gifford's Mistress Exposed in "Playboy" Marcus Errico, E! Online news, August 8, 1997
- ^ 'Yellow journalism': quaint concept in today's 'untidy' media world Paul Eisenberg, Media Studies Center, May 19, 1998, hosted by the Freedom Forum
- ^ Taming the Tabloids Darcie Lunsford, American Journalism Review, September 2000
- ^ Tabloid loses fight to stop rival from publishing Gifford affair story Associated Press, January 4, 1999, hosted by the Freedom Forum
- ^ Gifford's mistress sues tabloid CNN Showbuzz, June 23, 1999
- ^ Archived 2001-02-01 at the Wayback Machine