Former Del. Joseph D. Morrissey had kept reporters guessing about what else he had to say in his news conference, a day after his admission on radio that he had fathered the son of the young woman in the center of his sex scandal.
Would he and 19-year-old Myrna Pride become the stars of a reality show?
Or did he secretly marry Pride, who was underage when she went to work in his Henrico County law office where, prosecutors alleged, they had sex?
There were many rumors circulating in the past 24 hours but, in the end, it was none of the above.
More than two dozen reporters crowded around Morrissey’s conference table Thursday, the very scene of the alleged crime.
The scent of a gym locker room lingered in the air as Morrissey stepped in, followed by Pride carrying baby Chase on her arm.
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“Is everyone here? Can we start?” an upbeat Morrissey said. He asked that no pictures be taken of his infant son. Instead, he passed out copies of a family picture in antebellum attire that had caused a stir on the Internet last week after he had released it to a reporter.
Morrissey, the flamboyant attorney and ex-lawmaker who plans to run as an independent for the seat of state Sen. Rosalyn R. Dance, D-Petersburg, was in his element. Basking in the attention, he held court to present his new family to the public for the first time, as if they were the stars of a new soap opera.
“We’re really happy; life is good,” he said, with Pride sitting by his side. “We hope you can be happy for us.
“If you can’t, and you’re critical of it that two consenting adults are having a child, then that is also OK. But we are moving forward.”
Morrissey said he also wanted to “share some information” about his 3-month-old son and “correct some rumors” about his relationship with the woman that he went to jail for.
He said he was hurt by rumors that he had fathered three children with three different African-American women and that he had abandoned those children.
“That’s patently false,” he said. “All of it.”
In reality, Morrissey said, he has four children by four different women. Two of them are biracial, the other two are white.
And if you ever wanted to know about a day in the life of Fightin’ Joe Morrissey, on Thursday he told it all. And spectacular it is not.
“A typical day begins with me getting up a little bit before 6. I change Chase, I feed him, I go downstairs for an hour, I come back, we get him bathed and dressed, Myrna takes over from there,” he said.
Morrissey did not shy from questions about his sex scandal. He did not back off his story that he did never had a sexual relationship with Pride while she was underage — in spite of taking an Alford plea deal in December, resulting in a misdemeanor conviction for contributing to the delinquency of a minor and serving a three-month jail sentence.
Speaking in public for the first time, Pride chimed in as well:
“I never engaged in any sexual activity with Mr. Morrissey before I was a legal adult.”
Morrissey says he has found love with the woman who is 38 years younger. And he’s ready to tie the knot for the first time in his life.
“Of course we are going to get married,” he said, setting off a frenzy among reporters scribbling in their notebooks and tweeting the news.
“I love Myrna. She is smart, she is intelligent, she makes me laugh, she makes me a better person. We got a great life. Yes, we’ll get married.”
While her mother has given her blessing to Pride’s love for the man who’s old enough to be Myrna’s grandfather, the young woman’s father has not.
On Thursday, Coleman Pride released a statement, in the name of his family, condemning his daughter’s relationship with Morrissey.
“It’s disgusting that these two continue to lie and defame our family,” he said.
But Myrna Pride, calm and collected, told reporters that she has not given up hope that one day, she and her father will reconcile.
“The situation with my family is very sad, very hurtful. I hope that someday he and I and my sisters can mend that relationship,” she said.
Morrissey says he hopes the couple can live a life outside the public eye. A life “that is not as focused in the media as it is right now,” he said, earning chuckles from some of the reporters.
After half an hour, all questions answered, after the cameras and strobe lights were turned off, the couple stood up.
“This was fun; let’s do this once a year,” Morrissey said, smiling.