children with four women gathered around the
bedside of dying Muhammad Ali.
They had rushed from all corners of the US, said
his spokesman, to share the final moments of a
man whose chaotic family life had always been
subsumed under his glorious public one.
[caption id="attachment_2409" align="aligncenter" width="412"]

children – (from left) Jamillah, Maryum
(standing), Khaliah (sitting), adopted son Asaad,
Hana, Miya, Laila and Rasheda[/caption]
‘We all tried to stay strong and whispered in his
ear, “You can go now. We will be OK. We love
you. You can go back to God now”,’ said his
daughter Hana.
‘All of us were hugging and kissing him, holding
his hands, chanting the Islamic prayer.’
Ali’s spokesman Bob Gunnell said he was deeply
moved by the scene. ‘It was a wonderful thing to
witness. A lot of love and every member of his
family was there,’ he said.
‘There was a lot of crying ... but more important
they did it with dignity and kindness, as
Muhammad lived his life.’
This show of solidarity in grief is undoubtedly
one that Ali’s family will maintain – at least until
after his funeral.
An airplane carrying the boxing great’s body
arrived from Arizona, where he died, on Sunday
afternoon in his hometown of Louisville ahead of
a public funeral procession and service expected
to draw huge crowds in honor of ‘The Greatest’
on Friday.
The private plane landed at Louisville
International Airport around 4.30pm, WLKY
reports. Gunnell says Ali was accompanied by his
wife, Lonnie, and other family members and
friends. He says the body was taken to a local
funeral home.
Police reportedly escorted the casket, which was
wrapped in a black cloth bearing Arabic scripture
in gold on it, from the airport to the funeral
home.
The three-time heavyweight champion and
outspoken civil rights activist died on Friday night
at age 74 after health problems complicated by a
long battle with Parkinson’s disease.
‘Our hearts are literally hurting. But we are
happy daddy is free now,’ one of Ali’s nine
children, daughter Hana, wrote on Twitter.
After the funeral there are fears that the gloves
will be off in the battle over the boxer’s
$80million (£55million) fortune and, perhaps
equally importantly, who guides the legacy of
such a legend.
For both his brother Rahman and Muhammad Ali
Jr, the boxer’s sole biological son, have accused
others in his extended family of being anything
but ‘humanitarian’ towards them, cruelly leaving
them in varying degrees of financial hardship as
Ali and his controlling fourth wife, Lonnie, lived
in the lap of luxury.
Unemployed Ali Jr, 44, recently revealed he
hadn’t spoken to his father for two years, and
that his attempts to contact him were routinely
blocked.
Indeed, he even went so far as to claim that he
had stopped caring what happened to Ali. And it’s
not difficult to see why.
For the past decade, he has been living in a
miserable garret in Chicago’s crime-ridden South
Side, relying on charity handouts to feed and
clothe him, his wife Shaakira, and their two
children, aged seven and eight. Their grotty flat
is theirs only through the charity of Shaakira’s
family, who own it.
Ali Jr, the son of Ali’s second wife, Khalilah, says
he has been almost entirely cut off from his
father since 2004. He blames Lonnie, who
married Ali in 1986, and not only nursed him
through his long decline but also – with power of
attorney over his money – sorted out his chaotic
financial affairs.
The official cause of Ali’s death was septic shock
due to unspecified natural causes.
Gunnell said Ali had sought medical attention for
a cough, but his condition rapidly deteriorated.
He was admitted to a hospital in the Phoenix
suburb of Scottsdale, where he had lived for
several years with his wife Lonnie.
In Louisville, the late boxing legend’s life was
celebrated at a memorial service at the church
where their father was a longtime member on
Sunday.
His younger brother Rahman Ali took center
stage at the two-hour service at King Solomon
Missionary Baptist Church, sitting in a front-row
pew with his wife, Caroline.
During the service, assistant pastor Charles
Elliott III asked the congregation to stand to
honor Muhammad Ali. In his tribute, Elliott said
‘there is no great man that has done more for
this city than Muhammad Ali.’
The church is not far from the little pink house in
Louisville’s west end where the Ali brothers grew
up. It also features a painting by Ali’s father,
Cassius Clay Sr.
And it was one of several emotional
remembrances Sunday as the city joined
together to mourn its most celebrated son,
called ‘the Louisville Lip’. Later on Sunday,
interfaith services were planned at Louisville’s
Islamic Center, which invited citizens to ‘join
hands in unity to celebrate the life’ of Ali.
On Friday, politicians, celebrities and fans from
around the globe are expected for a memorial
service that Ali planned himself with the intent
of making it open to all.
After a small family funeral on Thursday, Ali’s
coffin will be transported Friday through the
streets of Louisville, before a private burial at
Cave Hill Cemetery and the public interfaith
memorial service at the KFC Yum! Center.
The procession has been organized to ‘allow
anyone that is there from the world to say
goodbye,’ family spokesman Bob Gunnell told
reporters.
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said the city is
ready for a massive celebration to honor its
most famous son.
Ali wed his first wife, Chicago cocktail waitress
Sonji Roy, in 1964 but they divorced within 17
months without producing any children.
The marriage reportedly ended because she
objected to the constraints of being a Muslim
wife.
Next came Belinda Boyd, who had caught Ali’s
wandering eye when she was 14 and working in a
Kentucky bakery. They married in 1967, when
she was 17 and he 27.
She dutifully changed her name to Khalilah Ali
and had three daughters – Maryum and twins
Jamillah and Rasheda – and the son Ali had long
craved.
During the tumultuous marriage, Ali had
numerous affairs, two of which led to the birth
of another two daughters. In 1975, Ali strayed
again, beginning a relationship with Veronica
Porsche who had worked as a glamorous ‘poster
girl’ to spice up his fight against Joe Frazier.
Once, Khalilah caught them in bed together in a
hotel and she attacked him so ferociously she
drew blood.
After Ali married Veronica, Khalilah was quickly
written out of his life and reduced to very
modest circumstances. Today, she works as a
hospital canteen waitress in Florida.
Ali’s marriage to Veroncia produced two more
daughters, Hana and Laila, but by 1986 she, too,
had been swept aside.
That year, as Parkinson’s Disease began to take
hold, he married wife number four, Lonnie
Williams, who had been a childhood neighbour,
albeit 16 years his junior.
Inevitably, Ali’s life was complicated by claims he
fathered other children. They include Kiiursti
Mensah Ali, now 35, whose mother claims she
had a 20-year affair with the boxer which started
when she was 17.
Meanwhile Lonnie and Ali adopted a baby boy,
Asaad, and she became Ali’s full-time carer. But
her motives for such self-sacrifice remain hotly
debated within the family.
Whereas some are adamant that Lonnie rescued
Ali, others say she poisoned his relationships
with the rest of his family, many of whom were
seen as spongers leeching money off him. Ali Jr,
as well as the boxer’s brother, are seen in this
category.
For his part, Ali Jr says his estrangement from
his father happened 12 years ago when he asked
him for a signed pair of boxing gloves. He claims
Lonnie believed he wanted the memento only so
he could sell it and therefore refused to let him
see his dad.
He also claims she did not allow his father to
attend the funeral of Ali Jr’s baby daughter.
In recent years, Ali Jr says that when he phoned
his father, his calls would either not be answered
or he would be told his father was busy.
Although he’s in touch with his sisters, they
never discussed their father, he said. Ali Jr
claims they are also angry at Lonnie but are too
scared to say anything.
He added: ‘I used to say that I felt hurt not
having my daddy in my life and it’s still not a
good feeling. In reality, it’s like not having one.
My father can’t do a thing for me.’ Rahman Ali
also blames Lonnie for his reduced
circumstances.
Aged 72, the ex-boxer married six times and was
a member of his brother’s entourage.
In return, Ali is said to have helped him with
alimony payments to some of these ex-wives
and allowed him to move into a house he bought
for their mother after she passed away.
Yet this largesse ended when Lonnie took over
the purse strings, forcing Rahman into a modest
Louisville flat.
Rahman says he once confronted Ali about the
woman he’s called a ‘gold digger’ and ‘an evil
b****’. He claims Ali ‘just looked at me with his
famous look’, put a finger over his mouth and
went ‘Ssshhh’.
With family members expecting Lonnie to be a
co-executor of the estate, Rahman has
reportedly vowed to fight ‘tooth and nail’ in court
to ensure he and all Ali’s children receive a share
– which is now likely to soar in value.
The marginalised brother and son aren’t the only
enemies of Lonnie. Charlotte Waddell, the
boxer’s cousin, claimed two years ago that Lonnie
‘controls everything’, saying: ‘I can’t stand to be
around her. It wouldn’t take me two seconds to
spit in her face.’
How tragically ironic that the greatest fighter the
world has ever known has left an extended
family who seem hell-bent on plunging into
bitter feuding.
Muhammad Ali was the greatest legend sportsman of all time. He was the greater and professional fighter. He made many histories in the ring and won many titles. He was my favourite boxer of all time, see more.
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