- "Apollo had an affair with my mom. After she died I bounced around if foster care for a few years. Mary Anne tracked me down and took me in."
- ―Adonis about his mother to Bianca Taylor in 2015[src]
Ms. Johnson is the biological mother Adonis Johnson Creed. She conceived her son via an affair with former heavyweight boxing champion Apollo Creed before he died in 1985. Her son was left orphaned after her death, until he was adopted by Mary Anne Creed, Apollo's widow, in the year 1998.
Biography[]
Mistress of Apollo Creed[]
Apollo Creed, Johnson's lover and father of her son
A woman of unknown age and obscure background had an affair with former heavyweight boxing champion Apollo Creed, despite him being married to Mary Anne, cheating on her to be with this woman. The relationship was kept secret, with not even Apollo's good friend Rocky knowing it was occurring.[1]
Sometime into their affair,[1] shortly before Apollo died from injuries sustained from a boxing match with Soviet Russian boxer Ivan Drago in 1985,[2] they conceived and Johnson became pregnant with Creed's child. However, he died before ever learning of the existence of his third child. Subsequently, Johnson gave birth to a son in 1986, naming him Adonis, the boy given his mother's last name, and she raised him as a single mother.[1]
Death[]
At some point while her son Adonis was still a young boy, in the 1990s, Johnson passed away from unknown circumstances, thus orphaning her son and leaving him to be taken in by foster care.[1]
Legacy[]
Adonis in 1998 after his mother's death.
In 1998, Donnie was in a juvenile detention center when a fellow delinquent made a comment about his mother, causing him to fight and beat him for the comment. That same day, the boy would be adopted by the wife of Apollo Creed, Mary Anne, informing the boy of his heritage as a Creed and telling him the name of his father, but also offering him condolences about his mother's death. But Adonis continued to carry his mother's name for more than another 15 years.
Adonis Johnson in 2015.
17 year later in 2015 (Creed), Apollo and Ms. Johnson's affair would be made public, after Adonis moved to Philadelphia to train under Rocky Balboa. This was seen by many to damage Apollo's legacy and tarnish Adonis's chances at getting chances to fight, but others saw it as just one mistake. Adonis explained how after his mother died to his girlfriend Bianca Taylor, he was in foster care and group homes until being adopted by Mary Anne. Adonis still sported his mother's last name, changed his last name to "Creed", but sported both his mother and father's last names on his boxing trunks in his title fight with "Pretty" Ricky Conlan after following in Apollo's footsteps as a professional boxer.[1]
She posthumanously became a grandmother with the arrival of Amara Creed, Adonis' daughter with his fiance Bianca Taylor, in 2018 as her son fought the son of the man who killed her one time lover, Apollo Creed.
Trivia[]
- It is possible that Ms. Johnson's name was Amara, and that Adonis had his daughter named in honor of her.
- In Creed III, it was heavily implied that why Apollo was cheating on Mary Anne in the first place was due to the fact they were likely fighting and that their marriage was on the verge of falling apart by the time he died in Rocky IV.