TORONTO — Two women who claimed to have become pregnant after trysts with comedian Chris Rock in the ’90s are revisiting the question of paternity — even though DNA tests cleared him.
Kali Bowyer said Tuesday that she and Monika Zsibrita and their respective children — now young adults — were swabbed for a Sibling DNA Test to determine if the children have the same father.
Both women made paternity claims against Rock more than 15 years ago and, in both cases, DNA tests concluded he is not the father.
“It’s really a roll of the dice but we’re two women who strongly believe in the same issue and we keep fighting,” Bowyer told Global News from her home in Georgia.
Sibling DNA Tests use 44 genetic markers to determine the statistical probability that two people have a common parent.
Bowyer said she has never met Zsibrita but the two have been in constant communication for many years.
Zsibrita could not be reached for comment.
Bowyer, whose son Jordan will be 21 in March, said she dated Rock off-and-on for a couple of years beginning in 1992. She conceded it was not a monogamous relationship but she feels strongly the comedian got her pregnant.
“Based on my genetic records, my doctor’s appointments, my due dates and who I slept with, I believe that he is his father,” she said.
“I’m not an elephant. I know how long a person’s pregnant for.”
Bowyer filed papers in Georgia in March 2007 seeking to compel Rock to take a paternity test because Jordan started experiencing seizures and she wanted to know his father’s medical history.
In August 2007, Rock — who never denied being with Bowyer — was ruled out as Jordan’s father. (Bowyer said she believes something was amiss with the DNA test.)
In a statement at the time, Rock and his wife Malaak (with whom he has two daughters) accused Bowyer of telling “multiple lies” and cited her “extensive criminal record.”
They added: “We also express our deepest prayers for the welfare of Ms. Bowyer’s son who has been continuously embarrassed and exposed in the media by his mother.”
Global News requested an interview with Jordan Bowyer but he declined.
Rock’s publicist Leslie Sloane referred inquiries to John C. Mayoue, an Atlanta lawyer representing Rock.
“This is an old, false story,” Mayoue told Global News.
“Many years ago it was scientifically proven that Mr. Rock is not the father of this child. It was further conclusively determined through court proceedings, in which Ms. Bowyer was represented by a lawyer, that this is not Mr. Rock’s child.”
Zsibrita, a model, also brought a paternity action against Rock, claiming he got her pregnant during a liaison in 1998. (Rock said he was separated from his wife at the time.)
DNA testing concluded Rock was not the father of Zsibrita’s daughter.
Testifying in 2008 at the trial of private investigator Anthony Pellicano, Rock said Zsibrita had tried to scam him.
“Someone who was not pregnant with my child claimed to be pregnant with my child and requested large sums of money for this,” Rock testified, according to the Los Angeles Times.
In 2008, Zsibrita filed a lawsuit against the comedian that alleged Rock violated a 2000 confidentiality agreement by talking about the paternity case on The Howard Stern Show in 2004.
The two sides reached a confidential settlement in 2012. The Hollywood Reporter quoted Rock’s lawyer Brian Wolf saying the dispute was “resolved amicably.”
Rock, who turns 50 next week, filed for divorce in December after eight years of marriage.
Privately, some in his camp dismissed Bowyer on Wednesday as a troubled woman and questioned her motivation for bringing up the paternity question again.
Bowyer (who has two other children) countered that she is not “some babbling loon.”
She said the issue of paternity came to the forefront again because Jordan is about to become a first-time father.
Bowyer said she is a publicist for artists like Angie Stone and said her son is signed to Universal Records as rapper JBoi.
She insisted she has never profited from her claim against Rock.
“Anybody could have taken a cheque and done the talk show circuit and cashed in, but I never took a dime from anybody,” said Bowyer.
She did, however, write a book about her relationship with Rock and appeared on a short-lived reality show.
(Regarding the never-published book, Bowyer said: “It still sits here. Maybe one day.”)
According to TMZ, Bowyer has “an extensive criminal past riddled with numerous bizarre police encounters, and a penchant for telling wild stories.”
TMZ reported in 2007 that Bowyer was convicted of DUI in Georgia, charged with theft by deception in 2006 and allegedly involved in several “veracity-questionable incidents” investigated by police.
Bowyer said Tuesday the DUI is her only criminal conviction. “I took the class, I paid the fine and I did community service,” she said.
The result of the Sibling DNA Test is due any day and Bowyer said she is prepared to accept a negative result.
“It’s a matter of closure,” she said, “and moving on with your life.”
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