Annie Bakes: Modeling Career, Dennis Rodman Marriage, Daughter Alexis, and Memoir
Annie Bakes, also called Anicka Bakes and Anicka Rodman, is a former model and author. She is best known as Dennis Rodman’s first wife and the mother of his oldest child, Alexis. Bakes worked as a model before Rodman rose in the NBA. She had Alexis in 1988. Years later, she wrote the 1997 memoir Worse Than He Says He Is: White Girls Don’t Bounce.
In this article, we’ll look at her modeling years, life with Dennis Rodman, daughter Alexis, short marriage, and memoir. We’ll also cover what is known about her life after the 1990s. Let’s start before Rodman became one of the biggest names in basketball.
A Modeling Career Came First
Bakes had a career before basketball fame came into her life. Her book record gives a clear outline of those years.
WorldCat says Anicka Bakes was earning a living as a model by age 20. She worked in Paris, Milan, Tokyo, and New York. Those cities were big fashion cities. Her work took her far beyond one local market.
That part of her life often gets lost in stories about Rodman. Yet it came first. She was already working and traveling before their relationship became public.
Her exact birth date is not clear in reliable records. A 1989 newspaper report called her 29. Many later websites give a different birth year. The dates do not match, so an exact birthday is not used here.
Meeting Rodman During His Detroit Rise
She met Dennis Rodman while his NBA career was still growing. Their time together began during his Detroit Pistons years.
Rodman entered the NBA in 1986. He soon became known for defense, rebounding, speed, and effort. Detroit then won NBA titles in 1989 and 1990.
Bakes was with him during that rise. Their life together was already public before his fame reached its later peak.
In June 1989, the Deseret News reported on a paternity case filed in Los Angeles. The report named Bakes as a model. It said her daughter was eight months old at the time.
The case came before the couple married. It also placed their family story in the public record very early.
Alexis Rodman Was Born in 1988
Their daughter, Alexis, was born in 1988. She is Dennis Rodman’s oldest child.
PEOPLE identifies Alexis as Rodman’s daughter with his first wife, Annie Bakes. Rodman later had two more children, D.J. and Trinity, with Michelle Moyer.
Alexis did not become a public athlete like her younger half-siblings. She has mostly stayed away from sports fame.
PEOPLE reported that Alexis is married and has a son. That made Rodman a grandfather. Her adult life has stayed much quieter than D.J.’s basketball path or Trinity’s soccer career.
The Marriage Did Not Last
She and Rodman later married. The marriage was brief and ended soon after.
The exact wedding date is unclear in contemporary coverage. By March 1992, a Los Angeles Times profile already described Rodman as married with a daughter. It also called his courtship with Bakes turbulent.
Later Los Angeles Times coverage described the marriage as brief and volatile. By the 1992-93 NBA season, Rodman was going through a hard period in Detroit. Coach Chuck Daly had left. The Pistons were changing. His marriage was also falling apart.
In her memoir, Bakes alleged physical and emotional harm during the relationship.
Her Memoir Told Her Side
In 1997, she published Worse Than He Says He Is: White Girls Don’t Bounce: My Walk on the Wild Side with Dennis Rodman.
The book came out under the name Anicka Rodman. Dove Books published the print edition. The 1997 edition also credits Alexander Scott as a co-author.
An audiobook followed as well. Bakes narrated the abridged version herself.
The memoir covered her modeling work, her relationship with Rodman, the birth of Alexis, and the end of the marriage. The publisher’s description also says a car crash ended her modeling career.
The book arrived at a striking time. Rodman was then playing for the Chicago Bulls. He was winning titles with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. His fame had grown far beyond basketball.
That made Bakes’s book part of a much larger public story. She was writing about the earlier years, before the Bulls image became his best-known image.
The Car Crash Changed Her Career
The car crash is one of the clearest details about the end of her modeling work.
The official book description says the crash happened during the years she was with Rodman. It also says the accident ended her modeling career.
After that, her public life changed. Fashion work no longer sat at the center of her story. Family issues, legal disputes, and the later memoir became more visible.
There is no strong record of a major modeling comeback after those years.
Life During Rodman’s Detroit Years
The relationship overlapped with a huge change in Rodman’s life.
At first, he was a young Pistons player known mostly to NBA fans. By 1990, he was a champion and one of the league’s best defenders. By 1992, he had become an elite rebounder.
Detroit was changing at the same time. The famous “Bad Boys” era was ending. Daly left the team. Rodman struggled with that change.
The marriage also broke down during this period. Later Los Angeles Times reports tied the breakup to one of the most unsettled parts of his Detroit career.
This was before Madonna, Carmen Electra, and the later Chicago headlines. Bakes knew Rodman before that version of his image took over.
Alexis Stayed Mostly Out of the Spotlight
After the marriage ended, Alexis remained the main family link between Bakes and Rodman.
She did not build a career around the Rodman name.
Her younger half-siblings took different paths. Trinity became a major soccer star. D.J. played college basketball.
Today, Alexis is known to be married and a mother, while the rest of her adult life stays private.
Why the Name Anicka Rodman Appears
Two names often appear in public records.
News reports from that time usually use the name Bakes. Her 1997 book uses the name Anicka Rodman.
The 1997 print edition credits Anicka Rodman and Alexander Scott. It refers to the same former model and author known publicly as Annie Bakes.
The book title is also shortened in some listings. Its full title is Worse Than He Says He Is: White Girls Don’t Bounce: My Walk on the Wild Side with Dennis Rodman.
What Is Known About Her Later Life
She became far less visible after the 1990s.
No strong public record confirms a later marriage, current job, or present residence.
There is also no dependable figure for her net worth.
Her public story is centered on modeling, motherhood, the paternity case, marriage, divorce, and the memoir.
Her Place in the Rodman Family
Bakes was part of Dennis Rodman’s life before his Chicago Bulls years. She was there before the Madonna headlines and before Carmen Electra.
She is also the mother of his first child. Alexis connects that early family story with the later Rodman family.
Rodman’s three children followed very different paths. Alexis stayed private. D.J. played basketball. Trinity became a soccer star.
Bakes’s own public story is also distinct. She modeled around the world. She became a mother in 1988. Her relationship with Rodman brought court and media attention. Later, she wrote a first-person account of those years.
Annie Bakes Today
Today, Annie Bakes is still best known as a former model, author, and Dennis Rodman’s first wife.
Her daughter Alexis is now an adult with a family of her own. Rodman’s wider family remains in sports news because of D.J. and Trinity. Bakes herself does not have the same public life.
Her verified story is strongest in the years before and after the marriage. She had a real modeling career, became a mother, lived through a difficult public relationship, and later wrote a memoir about it.
For another sports-family profile with a very different path, read our Denika Kisty feature on LakewoodScoop.co.uk.