‘Special Forces’: Cam Newton Opens Up About Cheating Scandal & What ‘Suffered’ Because of It

Alyssa Norwin February 5, 2025, 8:20 pm

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Cam Newton on Special Forces — Pete Dadds / FOX

Cam Newton got vulnerable while opening up about his family on Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test. During the Season 3 finale on Wednesday, February 5, the retired NFL star revealed that he has a strained relationship with his oldest daughter, Shakira, because of his infidelity while in a relationship with her mother, Kia Proctor.

Newton is not Shakira’s biological father, but he helped raise her during his relationship with Proctor, which ended in 2019 after he cheated on her and fathered a child with La Reina Shaw.

“I was in a long-term relationship, and I had a child outside of my relationship,” Newton explained on Special Forces. “We had just moved into a house, and everything was kind of perfect from the outside in. And my relationship with my oldest daughter has suffered. All she kept asking was, like, ‘Yo, why?’”

The former professional athlete said he’s “still dealing with” resentment from the situation. “The vulnerableness was having a child outside the relationship. I know I hurt somebody, but I didn’t want what I created to be a secret, either,” he continued. “But all the while, too, my relationship with my oldest daughter suffered and is suffering from that. ‘Daddy cheated on mom.’ I think it’s important for me to be accountable. But my children … it don’t matter what it is, you’re going to do it. No woman has ever had that over me. Sacrifice. It’s a side of you that I didn’t even know exists.”

Newton said he just wants his children “to know that their dad cares,” despite his “disconnect” with his eldest.

In addition to Shakira, Newton and Proctor had four children of their own when they were together. He’s also a father figure to Shaw’s older son, Jaden, from a previous relationship, and shares a son with now-girlfriend Jasmin Brown, as well.

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Earlier this season on Special Forces, Newton opened up about how leaving the NFL in 2021 has affected him as a father. “Being in the NFL, everyone knows there’s a large sum of money that comes to you in a short span of time, and being away from the game for three years, those checks don’t come in the same. Like, I got eight kids,” he pointed out.

He also added, “It hurts me knowing that I can’t provide like I once did. It hurts thinking that I’m Superman, but in reality, I’m just a man. There’s a famous quote that says, ‘In order to get something that you’ve never had, you’ve got to do something that you’ve never done.’ At 35, I can literally say, ‘Okay, now I’m getting prepared for this next chapter of my life.’”