Dick Button - Personal Life

Personal Life

In 1975, Button married figure skating coach Slavka Kohout, but they later divorced. Button has two children, Edward and Emily.

Button suffered a serious head injury on July 5, 1978 when he was one of several men assaulted in Central Park by a gang of youths armed with baseball bats. According to differing articles on different days in the New York Times, Button was variously reported to have been passing through the park on his way to an appointment with a cabinetmaker when he was attacked, or to have stopped to watch fireworks while jogging through the park. Three persons were subsequently convicted of assault for the attacks. News accounts and trial testimony indicated the assailants were intending to target gay people and attacked persons in the Central Park Ramble area as that was an area where gay persons congregated, but that the victims were attacked at random, and that because of the random nature of the attacks ". . . the police said there was no reason to believe the victims were homosexual."

On December 31, 2000, Button was skating at a public rink in New York State when he fell, fracturing his skull and causing a serious brain injury. He has since recovered, and now is a national spokesman for the Brain Injury Association of America as well as continuing his Award winning commentary for the broadcasts of The Olympic Games, and various figure skating television shows.