£30m BATTLE OVER LEGEND’S FORTUNE
Ring star’s brother, son and wives after fortune
MUHAMMAD Ali’s family are poised to fight ov over his huge fortune, with his n nine children, ex wives and b brother all set to enter the rin ring. The boxing leg legend’s £30million estate is set to s spark one of the most bitter contestscon the Ali clan has ever seen. The figure at stake could rise even hi higher because of the memorabiliamemo Ali is reported t to have collected througho throughout his career. Alrea Already his brother Rahma Rahman a nd s on Muham Muhammad Jr are at loggerh loggerheads with Ali’s fourth wife Lonnie, fearing they may have been le left out of the will.
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They claim she has ensured that she controls “the pur purse strings” after having been made executor of the will. A sou source close to the family said:sa “It’s not a sparring match between them, it’s a full-on fight. “It is no secret that there is bad blood between Lonnie and the rest of the family. They accus accuse her of coming between them and Ali’s blood relatives, includi including his daughters. It is a very fractiousfractio relationship. “There is no dou doubt Lonnie cared and loved MuhammadMuhamm but also she took control of the bus business affairs and acted as the gatekeeper to them. “It will be amazing if this doesn’t end up in the courts courts.”” Muhammad’s ex- wife Khalilah has confirmed that both Rahman and Muhammad Jr are saying they fear they have been left out of the will. The boxer had not seen his only natural son for two years. And last night an interview with Muhammad Jr – that was given two months ago – further exposed divisions within the family.
The 43- year- old has been living on poverty line for the past decade in Chicago, supporting his wife and two children with handouts from charities.
Muhammad Jr, the son of Ali’s second wife Khalilah, also called Belinda, said in the interview, published online yesterday: “I’m trying to live life, and be good.
“I saw him on his 72nd birthday, then on his 73rd birthday. I sung happy birthday to him and I heard nothing back.
“He didn’t respond and I know it was the Parkinson’s. I knew he was in a pretty bad shape.
“I don’t discuss my father to my sisters about anything, I don’t have anybody I can confide in, so I don’t do that.
“I don’t really care anymore about being cut off from the family. I’ve got through so much things in my life.
“I’ve got to the point where it doesn’t matter anymore. I live for me. I live life.
“I know that the last thing about Parkinson’s is being bedridden and he’s been laid up in bed for months.
‘My grandfather also has Parkinson’s. I don’t think about my father, I’m closer to my grandfather than I am my father.
“I’ve got to serve my purpose and help my grandfather Sada Ali-Din. At least I’m helping somebody. He’s got Parkinson’s, my mother’s father.
“It’s just not something that I worry about, I’ve got more things to worry about than my father.
“I got to live life, I’ve got to have a roof over my head, whether someone else is doing good or not, is no concern to me.”
Lonnie, who had been Muhammad’s childhood friend, became his fourth wife in 1986, two years after he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s.
Family members claim Lonnie plotted her way into his life.
They say she achieved this by moving to an apartment near his home, and offering her services as a nurse shortly after his symptoms began. He was still
married to his third wife, Veronica, at the time. Ali earned his biggest payday inside the ring on October 10, 1980, against Larry Holmes.
Despite being defeated by a technical knockout, Ali’s pay packet was £5.5million.
From the Thriller in Manila fight against Joe Frazier in 1975, Ali earned another £4million.
He also made millions of dollars from roughly 2001 to 2006 through his company, GOAT LLC.
Deals the business made with companies like Electronic Arts and Adidas brought in up to £8million a year.
The company’s title was an acronym for Ali’s trademark phrase, “Greatest of All Time”. In 2006 Lonnie and Ali sold the company to a man named Robert Sillerman.
He was the chief executive of the company CKX, in a deal worth a reported £35million.
The Alis retained 20 per cent of the business but CKX owned 80 per cent rights to the use of his name. In addition, Ali owned property in Michigan and Kentucky, and last year sold a home l ocated outside Philadelphia for £480,000.
The three-times world champion lived there while training for some of the biggest fightsghts in his long, glittering career. .
He died at his is £1.12million, sixbedroom home inn a gated community near the Camelback ack Golf Club in Paradisese Valley, Arizona.
His eldest daughter, rap singer and comedian Maryum, 48, was as extremely close to o him and was at his bedside at the Arizona house when he passed away.
Ali’s first marriage arriage to Sonji Roi lasted d barely a year.