More than a decade after the death of Johnny Cash, family members and friends are still reeling from a secret the country music legend tried to take to his grave – a forbidden affair with his wife’s sister that left her pregnant with his love child!
“The years can’t erase what happened between Johnny and his sister-in-law Anita,” a Nashville insider told The National ENQUIRER. “It’s still haunting their relatives and closest pals.”
The illicit affair and its aftermath have led to a Cash family feud that still smolders behind the scenes, according to sources.
The long-hidden scandal first surfaced in 2003, when it was exclusively reported by The ENQUIRER after the “Man in Black” died at age 71 of complications from diabetes.
Just four months earlier, his 73-year-old wife, June Carter, passed from heart surgery complications.
The father of five had been married to June for 35 years, but Johnny’s affair with her sister Anita had been covered up even after Anita passed away at age 66 in 1999.
Despite the taboo romance, Anita received care at Johnny and June’s home until she died of complications from rheumatoid arthritis.
The forbidden affair unfolded in the 1970s, when Johnny took June and her singing sisters – Anita and Helen – on the road.
As The ENQUIRER reported, one of Johnny’s former touring companions revealed the affair, saying: “I’d set up meetings between John and Anita, and I’d let them use my hotel room. I know they were intimate.”
When Anita – a mother of two who divorced four times – became pregnant with Johnny’s child, she underwent an abortion. Only a year earlier, June gave birth to Johnny’s only son, John Carter Jr.
The ENQUIRER learned June found out about Johnny’s secret shame, but managed to forgive her sister.
“But June would just tell her, ‘Honey, the path in the garden is laced with thorns. Johnny is on a journey and it leads back to my arms,’ to ease her guilt,” said the source.
