Mary Lou Retton won’t answer basic questions about donations, health care

Over the past three months, 8,319 donors have given Olympic great Mary Lou Retton nearly half a million dollars — $459,324 to be exact — after her daughter went on social media to announce that Retton was “fighting for her life” with “a very rare form of pneumonia” and was not insured.  

Also over those past three months, USA TODAY Sports has been in contact with Retton, her daughter McKenna Kelley and two friends of the family via numerous text messages and phone calls, trying to get answers to questions that, as of Monday afternoon, remain unaddressed.

Asked in several text messages and a voicemail on Monday about her lack of health insurance until recently, her financial situation and why she refuses to divulge where she was hospitalized or the name of her doctor(s) more than two months after she left the hospital, Retton, 55, declined to reply.

Retton’s unwillingness to answer the most basic questions about her health care is receiving increased scrutiny for one simple reason: the decision by Kelley and her three sisters to seek public donations for their mother on the crowdsourcing site spotfund.com. Had they not done that, Retton’s illness likely would have remained a private matter, never bursting into public view and enticing so many strangers to send money.

While still refusing to talk to USA TODAY Sports, Retton did agree to an interview with NBC’s ‘Today Show’ Monday morning. She appeared with an oxygen tube in her nose, describing a harrowing, month-long hospital stay, including a moment when “they were about to put me on life support,” she said. But she was able to go home in late October, she said. 

NBC said Retton did not want to reveal the name of the hospital, which is consistent with how she, her family and associates have handled the matter with USA TODAY Sports. 

When asked by NBC why she wasn’t covered by health insurance, Retton said, “When Covid hit and after my divorce (in 2018), and all my pre-existing (conditions) — I’ve had over 30 operations of orthopedic stuff — I couldn’t afford it.”

She then exclaimed, “But who would even know that this was going to happen to me?”

Regarding health insurance, she said, “I’m all set now,” confirming she has medical insurance now, “Yes, yes.”

USA TODAY Sports asked her Monday if the spotfund.com donations are paying for the health insurance, but there was no reply. 

When asked in an exclusive interview with USA TODAY Sports why her mother wasn’t covered by medical insurance, Kelley, 26, said that Retton could not get affordable health care because of pre-existing conditions, which she said include “over 30 orthopedic surgeries, including four hip replacements. She’s in chronic pain every day.”

Said Kelley: “Due to her medical history and the amount of surgeries she has endured from gymnastics and just life, it’s unaffordable for her.”

When told that an insurance agent contacted by USA TODAY Sports found two plans charging $545 and $680 per month for which someone with her mother’s medical history would qualify, Kelley said that Retton had once been covered by health insurance but “because she was not able to work and give speeches for two years due to the pandemic, she gave up her insurance.”

Retton was “about to get (health insurance) again but didn’t, and then she got sick,” Kelley said. 

In a text message to USA TODAY Sports Saturday, Kelley would not comment on how much of the nearly half-million dollars has been accounted for, but said that “all remaining funds” would go to a charity of her mother’s choice. She offered no timetable or further information.