The troubling relationship between former Michigan coach Sherrone Moore and staffer Paige Shivers involved more than just a workplace power dynamic; it included a secret pregnancy complicated by a rare, life-threatening disease, Shivers revealed recently.

The former UM staffer appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America and opened up about a dark chapter in her relationship with Moore. During that time, Shivers “learned she was pregnant by Moore.” But her pregnancy was complicated by Pompe disease, a rare inherited genetic disorder that weakens muscle strength. After Shivers’ doctors broke the news to her, she talked to Sherrone Moore about her desire to keep the child.

“Multiple doctors and experts told me that it wouldn’t be right or healthy for me to keep the baby,” Shivers said in the interview. “He (Sherrone Moore) said, you have to do what’s right for your body.”

Shivers’ Pompe disease was even covered by the Chicago Bears, who employed her father as a scout. In response to the story, she wrote a letter to the NFL team to spread awareness about the disorder.

“I get a lot of pain throughout my body,” Shivers wrote. “When I am in pain, I am really in pain, and there is nothing that can be done but hope and pray that it will go away. This disease has been such an impact on my life, and sometimes I feel as if it has taken over my life because every day is a battle.”

The interview also included some other details that were not public yet. According to Shivers, most Michigan coaches knew about her relationship with Moore and chose to turn a blind eye. Moreover, according to a Michigan insider, Shivers sat just 2 feet from Moore’s office, and the coaches would readily urge her to calm the head coach in tense situations. That workplace dynamic became a problem for her as the former UM head coach tried to do everything to keep her, even when she wanted to leave Michigan.

“Gosh. Here’s a man who had complete control over me, over my emotions, over my career, and he knew that, and he used it against me,” Shivers said. “Every time I tried to pull away, every time I tried to try and get out of Michigan, he always had a story, always had a way to pull me in, making me feel that I couldn’t leave him because he was so miserable without me.”

Finally, on December 10, Shivers reported her relationship with Moore to the Michigan hierarchy, and the program promptly fired the head coach. But Moore didn’t take his firing calmly and allegedly forcefully entered Shivers’ apartment. There, he threatened to kill himself and sent intimidating messages to Shivers.

“All of a sudden, I hear footsteps, and they’re getting closer and louder. And so I run to my door to try to lock it,” Shivers recounted the December 10 events. “He barges in, and he’s standing this close to me. And he said, ‘You ruined my life. Why would you do this to me?’ And then I start backing up, and he starts following me.”

During Shiver’s relationship with Moore, she went from intern to executive assistant in Michigan, and her salary rose by 55%. Shivers was first hired in 2022 as an assistant recruiting and operations coordinator and, before the 2024 financial year, had an annual salary of $58,025. But at the beginning of the 2024 fiscal year, her annual compensation increased to $90,000 as she was promoted to executive assistant to the head coach. However, as per Shivers, that’s not the full story.

Paige Shivers is not satisfied with Sherrone Moore’s court sentence

Sherrone Moore was charged by the police for his actions at Shivers’ home following his firing. The charges ranged from home invasion, stalking, malicious communication, and trespass. After a four-month-long trial, the court handed Moore an 18-month probation after the former UM head coach pleaded to lesser charges. The conditions of his sentence also include no contact with Shivers, along with a mandatory mental health treatment plan. But Shivers thinks Moore got off easy.

“[He] should have gotten more punishment for what he did,” Shivers told ABC News. “I don’t think it reflects what he did to me. He took no accountability…No one cared about my feelings. They wanted to use me to help him so that they could get through the season. He and other coaches had control over my career, especially him. He could fire me in a second.”

While Sherrone Moore states he has ‘closed the chapter,’ the fallout continues for the university. Michigan has hired the Chicago-based law firm Jenner & Block to conduct an internal investigation, a process that has already cost the school more than $6 million.