Derek Jeter Addresses Longtime Rumor He Gave Gift Baskets to One-Night Stands

Derek Jeter is setting the record straight about a longtime rumor about him. In his upcoming ESPN docuseries, The Captian, the 48-year-old MLB Hall of Famer responds to reports that he gave women he slept with a gift basket on their way out. The rumor began in 2011 when a friend of one of Jeter’s hookups told the New York Post that Jeter “has girls stay with him at his apartment in New York, and then he gets them a car to take them home the next day. Waiting in his car is a gift basket containing signed Jeter memorabilia, usually a signed baseball.” Jeter made it clear that the rumor is not true.

“Yeah, I read the article. Yeah, of course,” Jeter said, per Entertainment Tonight. You know, you see it, and then it’s like, how the f— did people come up with this? You know, basically, that’s it. And who would believe this s—? And you believed it!” 

“I remember being at a Starbucks one time and there’s some random guy behind me and he says, ‘Hey, I just want to let you know that I’m giving out gift baskets because you did,’” Jeter adds. “And I turned around and said, ‘You’re a f—n’ idiot!’ and the look on his face… like, did he think I was gonna say, ‘Yeah, good job, man!’”

Jeter is known for dating A-list celebrities, including Mariah Carey, Vanessa Lachey (then Minnillo) and Minka Kelly. In the docuseries, Jeter says the basket story is something “that became larger than life” but also noted that it “never happened.” In 2016, Jeter married Hannah Davis, and the couple has three daughters. 

“We want our kids’ lives to be as ‘normal’ as possible,” Davis wrote in The Players’ Tribune in 2017.” They’re going to be born into such an extraordinary situation. They’re going to have to be some strong little people. We don’t want them to be defined by their dad’s name — for them, we want him to just be “Dad.” That will be the piece of him they’ll have that the rest of the world doesn’t. It will be special, and it will be theirs.” Jeter spent his entire career with the New York Yankees (1995-2014). He was named an All-Star 14 times and led the Yankees to five World Series Championships.