David Cassidy Love Child Bombshell! 'Secret Daughter' Of Former 'The Partridge Family' Star Demands DNA Test
Oct. 23 2013, Published 6:32 a.m. ET
Former teen idol David Cassidy fathered a secret daughter during a one-night stand in Tennessee more than thirty years ago!
That's the claim that a North Carolina woman, Shelly Wright, is making after suffering through decades of doubt and confusion about her father's true identity.
After trying to reach out to Cassidy for a DNA test and being given the run around by his publicist, Wright is now stepping forward to RadarOnline.com to tell her jaw-dropping story and beg Cassidy to acknowledge her existence.
Adamant that she is not asking for a slice of his fortune, Wright says: "I just want him to finally acknowledge me. I'm not getting any younger and I just want some closure. I want to meet my dad."
Wright was raised by her mother, Donna G. Wallace and famed Nashville songwriter James Bohon.
But as a child, Wright says, she always felt that somethings was wrong, that the man was not her real father. "I didn't look anything like him, and my whole family always talked about it," she tells Radar.
"He always picked up my sister instead of me and had more of a relationship with her through the years. I was confused."
"When I got old enough, I finally confronted my mom and said, 'Why does everyone always say how I don't look like Bo?' I was like, 'If he's not my dad, just tell me,'" Wright remembers. That's when her mother told her a story that would shock her.
Shelly's mother and Bohon briefly separated in 1973, but Wallace "was always around famous country singers because of who she was married to," Wright claims.
"One night, she went out with one of her friends, and David Cassidy was there. He was on tour and had a show in Nashville. They both got drunk and slept together in the back room, a VIP room."
"It was just a one-night thing," Wright adds. "She ended up pregnant and she went back to James Bohon because she already had a child with him," knowing all along that Cassidy was the real father.
When Wallace told her the story, Wright says: "I was like, 'Mom, my god, why didn't you tell me that?!' And she was just like, 'Google him and see who he is. He's kind of cocky and arrogant.'"
"So I finally google the guy," Wright remembers, "and I was shocked."
Not only did Cassidy look just like her, Wright believes, but she also bears a striking resemblance to Cassidy's other daughter, actress Katie.
Even more shocking, David has admitted to having a lazy eye (his right) - and Wright was diagnosed with the same condition in her right eye as well. (Lazy eyes are often inherited.)
Still, Wright kept the story a secret for several decades, until she began to have children of her own and became desperate for some closure.
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Wright reached out to Cassidy's publicist, Jo-Ann Geffen, who quickly responded with a thinly-veiled threat. (Geffen did not respond to Radar's request for comment.)
"If this is a sincere and legitimate interest to determine your family history, that is one thing," Geffen wrote to Wright in an email obtained by RadarOnline.com.
EXCLUSIVE: Read The E-Mails Where 'Secret Daughter' Begs For DNA Test
"If, on the other hand, as an adult you are trying to realize financial gain in any way or use David as a ploy to get publicity, I hope you will have the decency to stop now. If you truly think there is a chance you are related, you have integrity as he does and would not do anything to hurt anybody."
Wright begged for the chance to meet Cassidy at one of his concerts near her North Carolina home, but Geffen refused to make the introduction. At some point, Wright says, she even doubted the publicist was passing on her messages to the star.
But finally, at Wright's insistence, Geffen finally agreed to have Cassidy submit to a DNA test, on the condition that Wright would pay for it. Geffen then mailed a hair purportedly from David's head to Wright, who sent it to a lab for testing. But before the results were back, Wright got the feeling she was being tricked, and called Geffen, as a test, to tell her that the results were positive.
"David's publicist flipped out on me and said, 'Shelly, you're a liar!'" Wright claims. "She told me that the hair wasn't even from David's head."
"I knew I couldn't trust her," Wright explains. " I was like, d***n I knew it. I paid for that DNA test and I was back where I started again."
Deciding to try another tack, Wright reached out to Cassidy's son, Beau Cassidy, on Twitter.
"I was able to send him a private message, and I just explained the situation to him," Wright says. "I said, 'Did you know David has a secret daughter? I'm your sister.' I just begged, 'Will you help me? Will you do a DNA test? If I pay for the DNA kit and send it to you.' And he said, 'Sure, absolutely. I'll help you."
But it's been weeks since Wright shelled out for yet another DNA test, and she hasn't heard back from Beau. And Wright is beyond frustrated to have hit another dead end.
"I feel like I've been screaming for a year, like, 'Help!'" Wright explains. "This is not a gimmick. It's not a game. I'm so irritated and desperate and I just want David to know that I've been trying to reach him about this."
Again, she insists, she wants nothing more from him than the chance at the father-daughter relationship she's missed out on for so long.
"My husband has a really good job and I don't want money," she insists. "We have a good life. I just want David to come forward and acknowledge me. There's a small hope that he does want to have something to do with me, and with his grandkids."
She explains, "I know he's my father. But I really want to get some closure, to know for sure and to have other people know too."