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A pro-life Texas state lawmaker accused of having a years-long affair with a former stripper — and paying for multiple abortions.
The woman, Alex Grace, who came forward in a video posted on the Current Revolt Substack. She alleged that Republican state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione paid for “meetups” with her along with “several abortions for his own personal gain” starting when she was just 18.
“I know that Giovannie Capriglione has been having affairs since 2005 because it’s me. I’m her. I’m not proud of it, in fact I’m ashamed of it. Hopefully, you can keep in mind that we all have a past and I wish I could say for him that that was the worst of it, but it’s not,” Grace alleged in a TikTok.
She alleged that the relationship turned sour after he began playing out his “foul” fantasies — while he worked to “erode away at women’s rights.”
In one instance, he made her pick up cash near a dumpster behind a Chuck-E-Cheese, she says.
Capriglione, 52, dropped his reelection bid for his seat in the suburbs north of Fort Wort just three days before Grace’s video surfaced — then came clean about the affair.
However, the pol — who hails from tony Southlake — denied paying for any abortions and vowed to pursue “legal remedies” over her claims.
“Years ago, I selfishly had an affair. I’m not proud of this. Thank God my wife and family forgave me, and we moved past it and have the strong marriage we do today,” he said in a statement.
“I have never, nor would I ever, pay for an abortion,” he added.
On his campaign website, Giovanni touts himself as “a pro-life leader with a 100% pro-life voting record,” who “voted to defund Planned Parenthood and authored and passed numerous pro-life bills, including the Pro-Life Abortion Trigger Ban bill.”
The “trigger ban” made performing abortions punishable by up to life in prison.
Grace said she was working as an 18-year-old exotic dancer when she first met Capriglione, who came into her club in 2004 and appeared to be “a very straight-laced businessman,” according to the Texas Tribune.
Their relationship blossomed as Capriglione returned every few weeks, she said.
“We became close friends,” she said. “He was magnetizing. He was outwardly genuine and kind. … He was the one who reminded me to keep my head up. He was the one that encouraged me. He pushed me to succeed more in life.”
They would first meet up at his office, before moving to hotels and later his home while his family was away, Grace alleged.
She claimed that Capriglione’s wife even “encouraged” the tryst.
“Stop feeling bad for his wife, she encouraged it. Quit assuming that every pregnancy that was terminated were mine, quit assuming I was the only one,” she said.
She said that she eventually had to break off their relationship, claiming, “It was when his fantasies were so foul and seeing the political moves that he was making were continuing to erode away at women’s rights… that was the catalyst for me taking the step back.”
Capriglione gave Grace “gifts” and cash over the course of their relationship, she said.
Grace described one instance when Capriglione allegedly arranged to meet up at an address that turned out to be a Chuck E. Cheese, according to the Texas Tribune.
“He told me to go to the back of the building and next to the dumpster there would be a rubber mat. Look under it,” she recalls him telling her. “And under this rubber mat was an envelope with money.”
Grace said the relationship started to fizzle out in 2012, when he was elected to the state legislature, according to the Texas news outlet.
Sometime between 2019 and 2020 the two had a phone call, where Grace shared her outrage with the lawmaker’s views, she said.
She claimed that Capriglione hung up and the two never spoke again.
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