HEALTH – Olympic champion gymnast Mary Lou Retton walked away with a cool $2million in her 2018 divorce, court papers exclusively revealed.
She was also expected to collect around $2million more in compensation after a legal spat with the manufacturer of her two metal hip replacements.
Why There was no Health Insurance?
The revelations cast more doubt on why the five-time gold medal winner had no health insurance when she was struck down with a rare form of pneumonia and why her family resorted to begging for cash online to bail her out.
‘My amazing mom, Mary Lou, has a very rare form of pneumonia and is fighting for her life,’ her daughter Mckenna Kelley, 26, wrote on the fund-raising platform Spot Fund in October.
‘She is not able to breathe on her own. She’s been in the ICU for over a week now. Out of respect for her and her privacy, I will not disclose all details. However, I will disclose that she not insured.’
They Raised More Than Enough
The fund raiser asked for $50,000 but raised nearly 10 times that. Multi-millionaire Texas philanthropist Linda Mcingvale donated $50,000 alone.
More than 8,000 others gave much smaller amounts adding comments to the page such as ‘Mary Lou is a true American icon & legend. The least we can do is give a little back & support her in her time of need’ and ‘We’re pulling for you, Mary Lou. You’re still that kid with the great smile to us! Get well NOW!’
Meanwhile, she had Fortune of her own
But it is discovered court papers filed in Houston that showed she had a small fortune following her divorce from Texas Longhorns quarterback-turned-real estate developer Shannon Kelley.
The property division accepted by the court showed that Retton received cash and property worth $1,950,597 as she and Kelley split their assets down the middle after 28 years of marriage.
More Proceeds From the Divorce
Not included in that figure were the proceeds from the sale of two houses, one in Houston and the other in Fairmont, West Virginia, which again were to be split 50/50.
Nor were the proceeds from a lawsuit in which she sued Indiana-based medical company Biomet Recovery over two hip replacements that went wrong.
It is not known how much she received but others who sued the company in similar circumstances got around $2million each.
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Retton’s Career
Retton, who turned 56 on Wednesday, found instant fame as a 16-year-old when she won her medals at the 1984 Los Angeles games.
She became the first American woman to win an Olympic individual all-around gold when she edged out Romania’s Ecaterina Szabo.
The Biggest Battle of her Life
But she faced the biggest battle of her life when she was admitted to the ICU in October.
A neighbor had found America’s Sweetheart, unable to move and struggling to breathe lying on the bedroom floor at her $600,000 home in a gated community in Boerne, Texas, an hour north of San Antonio.
Retton, who stands at a diminutive 4ft 9in, later told NBC anchor Hoda Kotb that she faced ‘death in the eyes’ while in intensive care.
