Los Angeles, California, native Marion Jones has been married twice in her lifetime. Her first husband was C. J. Hunter, and her second was Obadele Thompson.
She reflects on her three children living with the reality of her choices after a doping scandal in 2004.
Highlights
- Marion Jones began dating C. J. Hunter when she was only 16, and they married on October 3, 1998.
- After divorcing Hunter, she married Obadele Thompson on February 24, 2007, and welcomed three children: Monty, Amir, and Eva-Marie.
- She has a son, Tim Montgomery Jr., born on June 28, 2003, with then-boyfriend Tim Montgomery.
Marion is a former American world champion track-and-field athlete who won three gold and two bronze medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics.
However, her medals were stripped after admitting to lying to federal investigators about her knowledge of performance-enhancing drugs.
She was among the most famous athletes linked to the BALCO scandal, along with her ex-husband C. J. Hunter and then-boyfriend Tim Montgomery.
Marion was broke seven years after winning a women’s record five Olympic track and field medals and receiving multimillion-dollar endorsement deals.
In July 2006, she was linked to a check-counterfeiting scheme that led to criminal charges.
She was sentenced to six months in jail for her involvement in the check fraud case and her use of performance-enhancing drugs on January 11, 2008.
Marion Jones’s Late Husband, C. J. Hunter, Voluntarily Resigned From UNC
Marion Jones and Cottrell James Hunter III met at the University of North Carolina when she was playing basketball, and he was a shot putter.
She was only 16 when they started dating and married on October 3, 1998.
CJ Hunter, ex-mari de Marion Jones, est décédé !https://t.co/XWkLhJcWVf pic.twitter.com/vKmxPDx6YJ
— Sunuafrik.com (@SunuAfrik) November 30, 2021
Hunter resigned from his position after refusing to conform to school rules that prohibited coach-athlete dating. Later, the married couple trained for the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics.
Marion intended to win five gold medals at Sydney, but Hunter had withdrawn from the shotput competition for a knee injury. However, he attended the games to support his wife.
Unfortunately, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that Hunter had failed four pre-Olympic drug tests. He tested positive for the banned anabolic steroid nandrolone.
He was immediately suspended from taking any role at the Sydney games and ordered to surrender his coaching credentials.
Their relationship faced significant challenges due to doping allegations against him despite Marion’s efforts to support him. Moreover, the controversy affected their marriage, and they divorced in 2002.
Marion wrote an autobiography, Marion Jones: Life in the Fast Lane, where she mentioned Hunter’s positive drug tests hurt their marriage and her image as a drug-free athlete.
Sadly, Hunter passed away at 52 on November 28, 2021. He lived with a son, Nico, from his third marriage in Holly Springs, North Carolina.
After their divorce, Marion gave birth to Tim Montgomery Jr. with then-boyfriend Tim Montgomery on June 28, 2003.
Due to pregnancy, she could not compete in the 2003 World Championships but spent a year preparing for the 2004 Olympics.
Marion Jones’s Second Husband, Obadele Thompson, Won Barbados’s First And Only Olympic Medal
Marion Jones and Obadele Thompson were a powerful couple who married in a small ceremony in North Carolina on February 24, 2007.
The married couple lived in Austin, Texas, with their three children, Monty, Amir and Eva-Marie.
Obadele Oluwatosin Thompson became the first, (and to date, only), Olympic medalist from Barbados with a bronze medal in the 100m race at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
— H i s t o r y V i l l e (@HistoryVille) August 23, 2020
He's married with two children to Marion Jones, a former world champion track and field athlete. #HistoryVille pic.twitter.com/hUgYuWR1ey
Marion and Obadele’s relationship was built on mutual respect and shared experiences as elite athletes.
Their parenthood took their relationship to a new extent, requiring them to balance their responsibilities as an athlete, parents, and partners.
Despite the challenges, the married couple created a nurturing environment for their kids. However, their relationship had ups and downs, eventually leading to their divorce in 2017.
Obadele Thompson, the son of Alvin O. Thompson and Hilda Thompson, was born on March 30, 1976, in Saint Michael, Barbados.
His father was a Guyanese professor emeritus of African and Caribbean history at the University of the West Indies (UWI), and his mother was a registered nurse.
Obadele was no stranger to success and established himself as a sprinter, author, lawyer, and speaker.
He was an eleven-time NCAA All-American and a sixteen-time Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Champion.
Similarly, he is Barbados’s first Olympic medal winner as an independent country, placing third in 100 meters at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
In 2007, Obadele was inducted into the UTEP Track and Field Hall of Fame. After retiring from a professional athletics career, he published his first book, Secrets of a Student-Athlete: A Reality Check.
Additional Information
- Marion Lois Jones, the daughter of George Jones and Marion, was born on October 12, 1975, in Los Angeles, California.
- Her parents divorced, and her mother remarried Ira Toler, who was a stay-at-home dad to her and her half-brother, Albert Kelly, until his sudden death in 1987.
- After Albert’s demise, she turned to sports as an outlet for her grief and dominated California high-school athletics on the track and the basketball court at 15.
- Her net worth is estimated at $500 thousand as of 2025.
