Juanita Leonard tells why she secretly married Atlanta Braves star Otis Nixon - Cover Story

Jet, Feb 22, 1993 by Richette L. Haywood

Some secrets just won't keep.

Say, for instance, the kind when the comeback kid for a World Series baseball team marries the ex-wife of one of America's most beloved boxing greats.

And that's exactly what happened when Atlanta Braves outfielder Otis Nixon married Sugar Ray Leonard's ex-wife, Juanita Leonard, in Jamaica two months ago after a whirlwind 12-week courtship.

It's true. While every baseball fan in America was talking about the catch (Nixon's over-the-shoulder impossible grab during last year's playoffs against the Pittsburgh Pirates). Nixon was thinking about Juanita.

"A lot of people talked about what a great catch that was, but if I had to say what the greatest catch of the year was, there's only one answer: Juanita Leonard."

So enthralled after meeting Juanita last October at an Atlanta furniture store during the playoffs, Otis says he didn't want to see anyone else, think about anyone else or do anything that didn't include her.

"During bat practice I was thinking about Juanita, during the game I was thinking about Juanita, and I told her we lost the game because I was thinking about her," says Nixon. "I fell in love with her and I just felt like this was the person I wanted to spend my life with."

A lifetime romantic committment was, however, the farthest thing from Juanita's mind. "I was just getting out of this relationship with Peabo (Bryson)," she says, referring to the relationship even love pundits speculated would end in marriage. "I thought I was going to take a breather and see what was going on with my life and why things didn't seem to be working out on the romantic front."

After much reflection, she decided her relationship with Peabo "didn't work because we had too many differences about too many things. So instead of just staying together and making each other miserable it was best to just to go our separate ways."

And then she met Otis. She knew he was special when, for their first date, he offered her and her two boys prime seats at a Braves playoff game, "I was impressed," Juanita recalls. "Not only was I getting homeplate tickets to the game, he sent a limo to pick us up."

Juanita, who at JET press time was still enjoying the solace of secrecy, had not yet told either Peabo or Ray of her marriage. But she resolved she would "before this comes out because I respect them and I don't want them to hear about it through the grapevine."

Now comes the hard part. As no one knows better than Juanita, the day-to-day stresses of living in a fishbowl can be exhausting.

Her first marriage to Leonard made her life an open book. Then her two-year relationship with Grammy-nominated crooner Bryson continued the saga. Now, as the wife of yet another athletic star, she is again having to deal with someone else's celebrity.

But this time, it feels right. As she puts it, "There is no doubt."

Unlike her past relationship with Peabo, she recalls, "(he) asked me for almost the entire two years that we were together, on a daily basis, to marry him. But I wasn't ready. But with Otis there was no question. There was no thinking about it."

Not even after she learned of Otis' past drug addictions, which nearly ended his sparkling career two seasons ago when he was suspended 60 days for drug abuse.

Even though she had already been through hell with Ray Leonard because of his substance abuses, Juanita explains, "It didn't frighten or deter me at all because I know Otis. Yes, it was an unfortunate situation. He was at the wrong place, at the wrong time doing the wrong thing, then. Now, he's really good about going to his meetings, getting tested. His sobriety is something that he works really hard at accomplishing."

Because their feelings run so deep. There is a connection. An emotional fire. "And if you want something, you go for it," says Juanita. And that's exactly what she did on December 21, 1992, when she and Otis said "I do."

"We went down to Jamaica on Sunday, got married on Monday, and came back on Tuesday," muses Juanita, whose 6 1/2 carat princess diamond, emerald cut engagement ring prompted one blinded observer to quip, "Do you have a dimmer switch on that?"

Had she wanted one, she could have afforded it, as both she and Otis are thriving financially. He is in the second year of a three-year $8 million contract with the Atlanta Braves. She received a multimillion divorce settlement from Leonard.

"He's got his own and I've got my own," asserts Juanita. And yes, there is a pre-nuptial agreement.

"But whether we did or didn't have an agreement doesn't matter. We have that kind of respect where money wasn't going to be a problem," points out Juanita. "There were some things that he's going through that made us think it was best to separate our finances."

One of those things is Otis' former girlfriend, who is suing the 34-year-old baseball star for financial support of their infant twin boys.

Between them, Otis and Juanita have five children. In addition to Otis' twin boys, he has a 9-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, while Juanita has two sons from her marriage to Ray Leonard.