{"id":5941,"date":"2024-04-25T07:49:47","date_gmt":"2024-04-25T07:49:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/?p=5941"},"modified":"2024-04-25T07:49:47","modified_gmt":"2024-04-25T07:49:47","slug":"muhammad-alis-son-shut-off-from-dad-living-in-poverty-vu-thuy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/muhammad-alis-son-shut-off-from-dad-living-in-poverty-vu-thuy\/","title":{"rendered":"Muh\u0430mm\u0430d Al\u0456\u2019\u0455 \u0455on \u0455hut off from d\u0430d, l\u0456v\u0456ng \u0456n \u0440overty"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In 1986, when Muhammad Ali Jr. was 14 years old, his father, the greatest boxer alive, picked up the teen for a visit.<\/p>\n

\"Muhammad<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got in the car, and I said I needed to stop for something to eat,\u201d Ali Jr. recalls. \u201cBy the time I came back out, he was gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ali Jr. called his father\u2019s new wife, Lonnie, and said, \u201cDaddy left me up here. I don\u2019t know why he left me.\u201d She said she\u2019d tell him as soon as he arrived home.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe turned the car around and came back to pick me up,\u201d Ali Jr. says. \u201cI said, \u2018Daddy, why did you leave me?\u2019 He said, \u2018I kind of forgot you were in the car.\u2019\u2009\u201d<\/p>\n

Ali Jr. remembers it sadly, the moment when his dad\u2019s Parkinson\u2019s became apparent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the first time I \u00adactually realized something was wrong with him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Now 41, nearly destitute and living in the dangerous Chicago neighborhood of West Englewood, Ali Jr. fears his father has now forgotten him for good \u2014 and Lonnie is keeping him from even saying a proper goodbye.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\u201cThe Greatest\u201d and his family decades ago. Muhammad Jr. is pictured at the far left.Ken Carl\/Coleman-Rayner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIf I saw my father right now, I\u2019d say \u2018I love you, I miss you, and I want you to see your grandkids,\u2019\u201d says Muhammad Jr., who lives in a two-bedroom hovel he shares with his wife, Shaakira, and two children, Ameera, 6, and Shakera, 5.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wished before my dad got really sick, I could have had that father-son relationship, but that\u2019s impossible now. I wish I could have made up for lost time. But it doesn\u2019t break my heart anymore. It\u2019s been broken so many times, I\u2019m used to it by now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Muhammad Jr. was born in 1972 in Philadelphia to Ali, then 30, and actress Belinda Boyd, who was 17. Muhammad Jr. can\u2019t remember ever enjoying a family meal together. Mostly, his grandparents raised him, as his father was busy boxing and his mom was acting in films.<\/p>\n

He grew up with three sisters \u2014 Maryum and twins Jamillah and Rasheda \u2014 but when they were infants, Ali began an affair with Veronica Porsche, who became his second wife in 1977.<\/p>\n

The kids still saw their dad, and Junior fondly remembers those days as an extended family.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father used to do magic tricks. He\u2019d have a handkerchief that he\u2019d make into a cane; he\u2019d then make it disappear. His card tricks were really good. He was such a comical person. My father liked to wear masks and scare people. He liked to have people on the edge of their seats.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used to go to Pennsylvania where he had a training camp, and he\u2019d do tricks on stage. We all went. It was all the family, including my stepsisters Leila and Hana. We\u2019d get on the Bluebird Winnebago bus and go up to see him,\u201d Muhammad Jr. says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe stayed in log cabins, ride horses, watch him train, jump ropes and eat all the time as a family. He had a great cook.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I never went to any boxing matches apart from one when he fought Leon Spinks, and I just remember he kept on smiling even though he was getting hit a lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe never wanted me to be a fighter. He said, \u2018Don\u2019t get into it if you don\u2019t know what you\u2019re doing, as it\u2019s dangerous.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Muhammad Jr. says he lives off food stamps to survive while looking for a job.Ken Carl\/Coleman-Rayner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI used to see him all the time when I was a child. He made sure he was there, would get all the siblings together, and never kept us a secret from each other. I was proud of my daddy. Fame and fortune meant nothing, I just saw him as my daddy.\u201d<\/p>\n

But being Muhammad Ali Jr. had its pitfalls. Although his dad was conquering the world for a third time in 1978, his son was battling on the playground.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou may think having Muhammad Ali as your dad is great, but I had problems. People wanted to pick fights. School was hell. They wanted to see if I was like my father. I\u2019d get bullied all the time. Girls would only get with me because of my father, not because of me. Nothing was as it seemed. I didn\u2019t know who really loved me. People just used me so they could get a glimpse of my dad. Some people didn\u2019t like it that my dad was black or didn\u2019t go to war. We had to fight all his battles.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt meant my grandparents sheltered me a lot. Dad didn\u2019t know, as he wasn\u2019t around every day. I felt in some ways like I never had a childhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say my father was good and bad. The reason I say that is because my father never really spent time with me. Whenever we had time, he spent it with his daughters rather than me. Even in the only picture I have of all the family together, they\u2019re all wrapped close, and I\u2019m far out to the left. I felt like the outcast. I still do,\u201d Muhammad Jr. sobs.<\/p>\n

Muhammad Ali Jr. (left) was 14 when he said he first noticed the effects of his father\u2019s (right) Parkison\u2019s disease.Coleman-Rayner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He says he still feels the problems of his childhood and they\u2019re stopping him from moving on.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe gave us money directly, anything we wanted. Everything was given to me, and I was hidden away, which has hurt me in the long run. I\u2019m like a 12-year-old in a 41-year-old\u2019s body now. I was always sheltered as a child, limited to what I could do, so I don\u2019t know how to get out there and do it now,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sometimes resent to this day my dad. I was cursed with this name. People wanted me to follow in my father\u2019s footsteps, but what about my own? I want to make it myself. I don\u2019t want to be in the shadows of someone else.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like I\u2019m cursed. My life is cursed. I thought about even changing my name to Malik Islam and running away and starting a new life again. But my children stop me. I want to teach them and give them the discipline I never got.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Ali was champion of the world at age 22 and amassed a fortune of well over $100 million, his son is living off food stamps. Driving with a reporter to his local cafe for breakfast, he points excitedly at a charity shelter and says it\u2019s his savior.<\/p>\n

\u201cI go there when I ain\u2019t got no food in the crib or the kids need shoes and clothes,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy life now is crap. I live in a s\u2013t area, a house I don\u2019t own. I survive off handouts and food stamps. I\u2019ve tried for a job, but there\u2019s no hiring. I go on the \u00adInternet, but I\u2019ve never been taught how to use it, so it always messes up. I\u2019m stuck. If my \u00adfather was still around and was coherent, he\u2019d help me. But that\u2019s not the case, is it?<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I was rich, I\u2019d find a cure for Parkinson\u2019s. Next thing, I\u2019d get a big house with my father and kids and I\u2019d take care of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Muhammad Jr. says the last time he saw his father was at his dad\u2019s birthday party in Las Vegas last year, and it was like \u201che was in a coma.\u201d<\/p>\n

Muhammad Ali Jr., holding a photo of him and his father, said he just wants to say \u201cI love you, Daddy\u201d one more time before \u201cThe Greatest\u201d passes.Ken Carl\/Coleman-Rayner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cNow when you see him, his hands shake and his face is cold. His expressions are numb. It isn\u2019t him. He had always been talkative, joking around, the soul of the party. Now he doesn\u2019t do any of that. It\u2019s like night and day right now,\u201d Muhammad Jr. says. \u201cSometimes, you look at things and ask: \u2018Did it really happen? Did he box like that? Did he talk like that?\u2019\u2009\u201d<\/p>\n

Ali Jr. blames the breakdown in their relationship on Lonnie, his father\u2019s fourth wife. This isn\u2019t the first time Lonnie, whom Ali married in 1986, has been accused of tearing the family apart. Ali Sr.\u2019s brother, Rahman, spoke out last year about not being able to see his brother and the treatment his sibling was receiving.<\/p>\n

Muhammad Jr. says: \u201cHe slipped out of my life the moment he got married to Lonnie. The trips to see me stopped immediately. She once said that they couldn\u2019t afford to come and see me. How can a man who\u2019s well respected in the world, bigger than Elvis, with all the money he\u2019s made, not afford to travel?\u201d<\/p>\n

Lonnie, who has power of attorney, has made it clear Ali Jr. is not welcome, he says. When he phoned his father on Ali Sr.\u2019s birthday, Jan. 17, no one answered.<\/p>\n

Muhammad Jr. thinks his dad, now 72, won\u2019t make it to his next birthday \u2014 \u201cnot a chance\u201d \u2014 and hopes the day will come when the greatest living sportsman\u2019s pain will finally ebb away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want, hope and pray to God that that awful disease takes my dad sooner rather than later. Takes him away from all the suffering he\u2019s in. It\u2019d be really sad to see him go, but everything is for the best, and I will see him again in heaven,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no regrets in life apart from one. I regret not being able to call him on his birthday and wish him happy birthday, tell my daddy I love him. It may be his last birthday, and this is when you should be with your father the most. I love you, Daddy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1986, when Muhammad Ali Jr. was 14 years old, his father, the greatest boxer alive, picked up the teen for a visit. \u201cWe got in the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5945,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5941"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5941"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5946,"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5941\/revisions\/5946"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}