It's no secret that Citigroup board Chairman Richard Parsons has been working for months to repair the financial giant.
But, until now, even his closest associates didn't know he also was wrestling with a personal crisis - how to tell his wife and three childre
n he has fathered a child with another woman.
Parsons and model-philanthropist MacDella Cooper are the parents of a baby girl named Ella.
The 61-year-old former Time Warner chairman said only: "This is a private matter, and I prefer not to talk about it at this time."
Cooper, 32, also declined to discuss the circumstances of her daughter's birth.
"My private life is private," the striking beauty said. "I'm sure you can draw your own conclusions."
Cooper gave birth last August, according to a source, who said Parsons will support the child and has set up a trust fund for her education.
The widely admired executive is said to have become close to the former model - who says she has worked for Ralph Lauren and appeared in Glamour magazine - through his support of her MacDella Cooper Foundation, which she founded in 2004 to help orphans and abandoned children in her homeland of Liberia.
Besides making donations, Parsons was the keynote speaker at her foundation's gala in October 2007.