Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson getting divorce, accused of affair with city worker, report says

By Everton Bailey Jr.

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson and his wife Nakita Johnson are getting a divorce amid accusations that he cheated with a now former city staffer in 2021.

D Magazine reports Nakita Johnson said during their divorce proceedings this week that she confronted her husband about the infidelity with the then-city employee three years ago and she said he admitted to it.

Eric Johnson, 48, and his attorney, Ike Vanden Eykel, denied that the mayor was having an affair, according to D Magazine. The former city staffer, who wasn’t named, also denied the allegations to the magazine. The mayor filed for divorce in March 2023, and Nakita Johnson, 40, said he told her after declaring he would be running for a second mayoral term while she was washing dishes after dinner, the outlet reported. It’s not clear why he filed.

The divorce case file is sealed, and there is no online record of the case nor any hearings listed this month in Dallas County as of Wednesday. Hannah Rector, an attorney representing Nakita Johnson, declined comment when reached by The Dallas Morning News. Vanden Eykel didn’t immediately respond Wednesday to voicemail and text messages left at numbers listed for him.

D Magazine said the outlet was alerted to the Johnsons’ divorce trial after editor Tim Rogers was subpoenaed by Nakita Johnson’s attorneys to testify about an April 2023 blog post. Rogers described Johnson as giving the vibe of a “divorced dad” after wearing a brown leather jacket during a City Council meeting. Nakita Johnson said in court that the mayor accused her of leaking their pending divorce to the media, which she denied.

Rogers wrote in the same April 2023 blog that the mayor was still married and that his comment was “a joke.” Rogers wrote Wednesday that he did not testify in the divorce case.

D Magazine reported that the mayor testified in court this week that he and the former city employee shared a Ritz Carlton hotel room in Montreal during a two-week vacation last summer during the City Council’s annual recess and while she no longer worked for Dallas. The mayor paid about $110,000 to her firm last year, according to the magazine, citing campaign finance records.

Eric and Nakita Johnson married in September 2007, public records show. They have three children together.

This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.