Who Has Shannon Sharpe Dated? The NFL Champ-Turned-Host’s Exes Have Sued Him Several Times

Former NFL tight end-turned-media icon Shannon Sharpe's life and career took a turn when he was involved in multiple sexual assault allegations. In April 2025, a woman identified as Jane Doe sued him for a minimum of $50 million in damages, claiming he turned violent after aggressively pursuing her.

Shannon's allegations led many to look into his past relationships. While the Club Shay Shay host maintained a pretty private love life before his legal woes, he has a colorful dating history. Let's get into it.

Shannon has three children: Kayla, Kaley, and Kiari (all born in 1992 because Unc was BUSY!). His first public relationship came from his son's mother, Erika Evans. Kayla and Kaley's mothers reportedly opt to stay out of the spotlight.

Erika and Shannon dated on and off until around the early 2000s.

In 2007, ESPN reported Erika filed charges against Shannon after he picked her up and threw her out of his home when she came over to drop off their son. The charges were later dropped and they continued co-parenting their now-adult child.

Shannon's relationship with his ex, Michele Evans, came out during his 2025 sexual assault claims from Jane Doe. Several days after the lawsuit went public, Michele said she dated the Shay Shay Media CEO in 2002 after meeting when she was a local TV reporter.

In an interview with The U.S. Sun, she said Shannon "started pursuing me pretty heavily" after their second meeting, embarking on a relationship that lasted for nearly a decade.

Michele said the relationship ended in 2010. She claimed that was when the relationship turned violent as they had the "biggest argument that we ever got in." The argument allegedly resulted in Shannon raping Michele and threatening her life and placed her under surveillance. Michele also filed for a restraining order against him in 2010, stating she believed Sharpe had doxxed her address.

The exes' legal woes continued in 2023 when she sued him for defamation, accusing him of falsely claiming in public that she attempted to kill her husband. Shannon denied all of Michele's claims.

"Sadly, Ms. Evans became obsessed with Shannon and decided to manufacture a claim against him," his attorney, Mitchell Schuster, wrote. "When she could not find a lawyer to pursue her outrageous story, she filed a civil complaint on her own that is completely devoid of merit."

Another one of Shannon's public relationships was with fitness trainer and nutritionist Katy Kellner. The exact date when their relationship began is unknown, but the Denver Post called her his "longtime girlfriend" when she attended a Pro Football Hall of Fame breakfast in his honor with him and his family. According to The Sports Rush, Shannon and Katy were engaged in 2016. However, they broke up soon after, and she moved on by getting pregnant shortly after their split by her ex-husband, Marlon Byrd.

Shannon's relationship with Gabriella started when she was 19 and he was in his mid-50s. She claimed they hit it off at the gym and engaged in a consensual romance until it eventually became abusive. Gabriella accused Shannon of sexually assaulting her twice during and said she suffered from "controlling and verbal abuse."

"He demanded complete control over her time and body, expecting her to be at his house on his schedule, at his command, whenever he called," Gabriella's lawyer, Tony Buzbee said in the lawsuit, per The U.S. Sun.

Shannon and his legal team vehemently denied his ex's claims, calling them "an egregious attempt at blackmail" and "filled with lies, distortions, and misrepresentations—and it will not succeed." Still, the media personality stepped down from his gig as a co-host of ESPN's First Take after news broke that he and his counsel offered to pay Gabriella $10 million to settle her lawsuit.