Daughter’s Journey: Healing and Renewal After Marrying Her Father

A woman who once married her biological father after meeting him for the first time as a teenager is now starting anew with a different partner, the Daily Mail reports.

Samantha Kershner, now 28, first encountered her father, Travis Fieldgrove, when she was 17.

Their relationship began as a typical father-daughter connection but evolved over three years into a romantic involvement, culminating in a sexual encounter in September 2018.

A month later, amid a police investigation into their relationship, they tied the knot and made their marriage public on Facebook as the new year began.

However, their union was short-lived. By January 2020, Fieldgrove, then 47, was sentenced to jail after he entered a no contest plea to a charge of attempted incest.

Kershner no longer associates with her convicted sex offender father and maintains a happy life with her daughter and fiancé in a quintessential village in rural Nebraska.

‘Hell no,’ she told the Daily Mail when asked if she was in contact with Fieldgrove. ‘I talk to no one from that side of the family.’ 

Reflecting on the relationship with Fieldgrove, a convicted pedophile, the young mother admitted that he groomed her and ‘took advantage’ of her teenage naivety.

Samantha Kershner married to her biological father Travis Fieldrove, pictured together, in October 2018. She has now suggested that the convicted pedophile groomed her and ‘took advantage’ of her teenage naivety

Kershner, 28, now has rebuilt her life with a new man, pictured together, and is no longer in contact with her biological father

Fieldgrove and Kershner got married in October 2018, a month after police began investigating the incestuous relationship. They publicly announcing their union on Facebook in 2019

‘I’m doing a lot better now,’ Kershner, who studied cosmetology, said. ‘A lot better.’

Kershner, who on social media hails her husband-to-be as a ‘wonderful man,’ added that she is looking forward to getting married next year.

She commemorated their one-year dating anniversary on Facebook last November, saying that he treats her and her young daughter in an ‘amazing’ way. 

‘I’m so lucky to have him in our lives,’ she wrote of her fiancé. In another post, she added that her daughter ‘loves her daddy’ and is ‘hanging all over him all the time.’

While Kershner’s life has seemingly changed for the better, Fieldgrove has continued on his lifelong path of criminality and recently landed himself back in jail.

Fieldgrove was sentenced to three years behind bars in November 2025 after he was convicted of making terroristic threats, state corrections department records showed.

He was previously convicted of the same offense in 2021 and 2014, according to court records obtained by the Daily Mail.

Kershner said she was unaware of his most recent conviction or incarceration. She declined to comment further on the matter.

Fieldgrove, seen in a recent booking photo, is back behind bars after he was convicted making terroristic threats in November 2025

Kershner, with her fiancé and daughter, is getting married next year. She told the Daily Mail that she is doing ‘a lot better’ now and has distanced herself from the Fieldgrove family

Fieldgrove has a prolific criminal record dating back to the mid-1990s and has spent decades in and out of jail, records showed.

His rap sheet includes a long list of crimes, including forgery, theft, shoplifting, driving under the influence, domestic assault, violating probation and more, records showed. 

But most shocking is the fact Kershner was not his first teenage victim. 

Fieldgrove was charged with sexual assault in January 1999 after he had sex with a 15-year-old, according to the court filings.

He accepted a plea deal that reduced the charge to child abuse and was jailed six months.

Kershner was just one year old at the time of the alleged assault, and Fieldgrove was not yet involved in her life.

The pair connected 17 years later after Kershner told her mother that she wanted to know who her biological father was. 

Her mother identified Fieldgrove and arranged a meeting, which resulted in the pair having a father-daughter relationship for three years.

According to charging documents, Fieldgrove and Kershner admitted to police that they had sex for the first time in September 2018. They did not reveal how their father-daughter relationship turned sexual

They told police they had sex for the first time in September 2018 but would not reveal how the relationship became sexual, court documents said.

According to charging documents, Kershner told police that she had a ‘jealous competition’ with her half-sister about who could have sex with their father first.

The pair may have fallen victim to a phenomenon called genetic sexual attraction, where long-lost family members experience intense romantic feelings or attraction if they meet for the first time as adults.  

Kershner’s mother notified police about their relationship that very September.

Fieldgrove married his daughter the following month after they found out they were being investigated for incest. 

Under Nebraska law, both parties need to provide the full names of their parents before a marriage license can be approved.

But Fieldgrove is not listed as Kershner’s father on her birth certificate.

The couple went on to publicly announce their union to their loved ones on Facebook despite Kershner’s mother having reported their relationship to police. 

When they were questioned by police, Fieldgrove said that he didn’t believe Kershner was his daughter because his name wasn’t listed on her birth certificate.

A paternity test that Fieldgrove and Kershner agreed to undergo in January 2019 determined there was a 99.999 percent probability that he was her father. 

A paternity test that Fieldgrove and Kershner agreed to undergo in January 2019 determined there was a 99.999 percent probability that he was her father

Fieldgrove during his sentencing in January 2020 after pleading no contest to a charge of attempted incest

They were each charged with one count of incest. 

Prosecutors had reduced the charge to attempted incest in exchange for Fieldgrove’s no contest plea. He was jailed for two years in January 2020.

Kershner struck a deal months before that saw the incest charge against her dropped after she pleaded no contest to misdemeanor false reporting.

Fieldgrove is currently being held in Tecumseh State Correctional Institution in connection with his most recent conviction.

A post on his Facebook page told his friends that he says ‘hi’ and plans to ‘see everyone when he gets out.’