Vickie Chesser is one of the four women married to Johnny Bench, a former professional baseball player who played for Cincinnati Reds in Major League Baseball, as a catcher, from 1967 to 1983.
During the 70s, Johnny and his then-team members dominated the MLB, winning six division titles and two world championships. According to his Wikipedia page, he is regarded by the baseball world as the greatest catcher of all time.
Who is Vickie Chesser?
Vickie Chesser is an American citizen who rose to fame for her marriage to Johnny Bench. She was born in Logan, Ohio, in the United States, in October 1953. She is 69 years old at the time of writing this blog post. She belongs to the white ethnicity.
Vickie spent most of her childhood in Ohio, where she had her basic and other education levels. She is the daughter of Clyde Chesser and his wife. She is also a sister to Comfort Chesser.
In her early twenties, Vickie Chesser participated in the Miss USA beauty pageant 1970. She ended the show as a first runner-up. This got her the chance to appear on top shows of the time, like, The Mike Douglas Show and The Merv Griffin Show.
After participating in the beauty pageant, she took a career in modelling. She modelled for top brands of those days and appeared on numerous magazine covers. She was also a brand ambassador for a toothpaste brand. Vickie once accepted a $25000 offer to pose naked for a monthly pornographic magazine called Hustlers.
Vickie works as a teacher at an Ohio school called Kairos Academy, according to her LinkedIn profile. The school is a virtual community school.
Vickie Chesser was Johnny Bench’s first wife
Vickie Chesser was the first on the list of the four women Johnny Bench has married and divorced. Before she met Johnny, she had previously been in a relationship with Joe Namath, a former American football player who played 13 seasons in the National Football League with New York Jets. There isn’t enough information on the relationship between Vickie and Joe.
A few months after her breakup with Joe, Vicki met Johnny Bench, who proposed marriage four days after their first meeting. Johnny was tagged by the media as “baseball’s most eligible bachelor” before he got married.
The wedding ceremony between Vickie Chesser and Johnny Bench occurred at Christ Episcopal Church in Cincinnati. The ceremony, which took place at night, was witnessed by 650 guests. Rev. Victor Frederiksen, the head pastor of Christ Church, and Rev. Edward Sims, a rector of the Episcopal Church at that time, officiated the wedding.
A reception was held at Netherland Hilton Hotel after the wedding. According to a New York Times publication on February 22, 1975, about six Cincinnati policemen were present at the reception to ensure safe and calm proceedings.
The marriage between the former love birds did not last, as it ended after thirteen months. They divorced after they discovered that they were incompatible. The major issue that made Johnny divorce Vickie was her acceptance to pose for a pornographic magazine.
In an interview, Vickie described her ex-husband as a tragedy. She said: “Johnny Bench is a great athlete, a mediocre everything else, and a true tragedy as a person.”. Johnny also described Vickie as someone he hated. “Now I’m done with two things I hate: baseball and you”, Johnny reportedly said to his ex-wife.
What happened to Vicki Chesser after the divorce?
Vickie Chesser moved from Cincinnati, where she used to live with Johnny Bench, to Manhattan to continue with her modelling career. She left the limelight since her claim to fame was her marriage to Johnny. She is possibly single.
On the other hand, Johnny Bench married for the second time to Laura Cwikowski, a model and an aerobics instructor from Oklahoma. They divorced in 1995 after having a son together named Bobby Binger Bench.
He got married to his third wife in 1997. This marriage also ended with marital infidelity being the reason. In 2004, he married the daughter of a professional golfer, Hugh Baiocchi, Lauren Baiocchi. This marriage also ended in a divorce due to Lauren’s inability to move to Florida, where Johnny lives. They had two sons together.