Robyn Dixon Helped Her Ex-Husband Juan Find the Father He Never Knew Existed

BravoTV.com:

A lot has happened in Robyn Dixon's life since last season of The Real Housewives of Potomac. We'll of course get an update when the new season of RHOP premieres on Sunday, April 2 at 9/8c, but her family got a major surprise last year when her ex-husband, Juan Dixon, met the biological father he didn't know even existed.

The Baltimore Sun broke the story last November that Juan had found his biological father, Bruce Flanigan, last year after thinking his dad Phil Dixon, the man he grew up with his whole life, was his biological father. "Isn't that amazing? It's still so weird," Robyn recently told The Daily Dish about the discovery. "They talk a lot, and his [biological] father's a really great guy. He's so nice. I'm like, damn, it sucks that he missed out on that experience, but it's great." 

As Juan led the University of Maryland's men's basketball team to victory in the NCAA national championship in 2002, he gained acclaim for his skills on the court. But viewers were also captivated by his personal story of losing both of his parents, Phil and Juanita Dixon, to AIDS the year he turned 17. When Bruce saw Juan playing for the Terps on TV in his first season at Maryland, he knew he was his son, he told The Baltimore Sun.

Bruce explained to the newspaper that he and Juan's mom had dated in the early '70s when they were in high school. The two ended their relationship, and Juanita began dating Phil, whom she would eventually marry. Though there were always some murmurs among Bruce's and Juan's families that Phil wasn't Juan's biological father, Juanita never confirmed it — even when asked by Bruce, who had long thought Juan was his son, and Juan himself. In fact, Juan was told, "Don't go there" by his mom when he questioned why he didn't look like his father like his older brother did, according to The Baltimore Sun.


Bruce even ran into Juan once at a department store in Towson, Maryland when his son was in college, and he told him he knew his mother in high school. However, Bruce told The Baltimore Sun that he didn't share that he thought he was Juan's father because he "didn't want to interfere with his career." 

Robyn said she had heard about this rumor many years ago after a high school friend, PJ, who is also Bruce's cousin, brought it up with her brother. Robyn said that she "brushed it off" at the time because she thought her brother was referring to Juan's brother, Jermaine Dixon, who has a different biological father who is still alive. "I was like, no way. It wasn't even a possibility. I'm just like, 'No, I think he's confused. I think he's talking about Jermaine,'" Robyn told The Daily Dish. "I didn't pursue it anymore. I just brushed it off. Juan never questioned who his real father was. He never doubted that the man who he thought was his father was his father."

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