Charlie Pride’s Extramarital Son Revealed in New Lawsuit

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photos: Greg Mathison/Tyler Patrolman’s Association

When Country Music Hall of Famer Charley Pride passed away on December 12th, 2020, obituaries for the country legend listed off his survivors as his wife of 64 years Rozene, and his children Carlton, Dion and Angela. But a new lawsuit filed in the Dallas County Probate Court in Texas has revealed that Pride had a fourth child from an extramarital and interracial relationship that was kept quiet for decades.

41-year-old Tyler Tines Pride is a police officer from Tyler, Texas, and the biological son of Charley Pride and Joyce Ann Tines. Though the story of Tyler Pride was kept under wraps for many years, nobody is disputing his claim that Charley was his father. In 1992 when Tyler was 13-years-old, a Texas court confirmed via DNA testing that Charley Pride was the father of Tyler Tines, and ordered Tyler’s surname changed to Pride. The court also ordered that Charley Pride pay back-owed child support of $92,000 and make child support payments to Joyce Ann Tines of $4,000 a month until Tyler turned 18.

According to Tyler Pride, Charley and his mother met when she was a flight attendant on Braniff Airways. They met on a flight, and kindled a relationship that lasted some 10 years. Though Tyler was born out of wedlock, he’s says the pregnancy was planned, despite his mother initially not wanting to have a child with a married man. It was Charley who insisted. Tyler insists Charley loved his mother, and it was less like a casual affair, and more like a second family Pride kept.

Tyler Pride was born on July 19, 1979, and for the first fifteen months of his life, they lived in Dallas, and Charley would visit frequently. Before the age of 2, Tyler moved with his mother to Lindale, east of Dallas and just north of the town of Tyler. Tyler Pride says that ever since he was old enough to comprehend, he was told his father was Charley Pride, and his mother would play Pride records in the home. Growing up in east Texas, he was picked on for being biracial, but he was always told to be proud of who he was, and never tried to hide the identity of his famous father.

As Tyler got older, he says Charley Pride’s visits and attention subsided, and Charley only spoke to Tyler three or four times a year by his teenage years. The matter was obviously a source of tension with Charley’s public family, and so Charley stayed away more and more. Just like Charley who played professional baseball before pursuing a career in country music, Tyler was good at sports growing up and was a varsity athlete, and is also said to be a good singer, performing in the campus choir during college.

Tyler Pride’s lawsuit seems to be just as much about recognition as it is money. He says he was not notified that his father was ill, was told it was not a good idea for him to attend the funeral, and obviously, was not mentioned at all in the coverage of his father’s death. The lawsuit says Tyler was kept a secret to protect Charley Pride’s public brand and reputation. Tyler was also not mentioned in his father’s will at all. Charley’s wife Rozene is the will’s executor.

“It is heartbreaking to see Tyler try to tarnish Charley’s reputation and break Charley’s estate plan in the hope of getting more money for himself,” Rozene told The Dallas Morning News. “Tyler’s relationship with Charley in the last years was all about money, since he only called Charley when he wanted money or something else he wanted Charley to get him. He viewed Charley as his ‘cash cow’ and little more.”

Tyler’s half-sister Angela Pride said about the matter succinctly, “Charley Pride has three children — two sons and a daughter. Carlton, Dion and Angela.”

But there’s no disputing Tyler Tines Pride is the son of Charley Pride. What the court will have to determine is whether Tyler—who is married with three children of his own—has any claim to the Charley Pride estate.

It turns out Charley Pride’s life was more like a country song than we knew. Dennis Quaid is currently making a biopic film about the life of Charley Pride.

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