Personal life Marriages and children
Ali has been married four times and has seven daughters and two sons. Ali met his first wife, cocktail waitress Sonji Roi, approximately one month before they married on August 14, 1964.[41] Roi's objections to certain Muslim customs in regard to dress for women contributed to the breakup of their marriage. They divorced on January 10, 1966.
On August 17, 1967, Ali married Belinda Boyd. After the wedding, she, like Ali, converted to Islam and more recently to Sufism,[42] changed her name to Khalilah Ali, though she was still called Belinda by old friends and family. They had four children: Maryum (b. 1968), twins Jamillah and Rasheda (b. 1970), and Muhammad Ali, Jr. (b. 1972).[43] Maryum has a career as an author and rapper.[44]
In 1975, Ali began an affair with Veronica Porsche, an actress and model. By the summer of 1977, Ali's second marriage was over and he had married Veronica.[45] At the time of their marriage, they had a baby girl, Hana, and Veronica was pregnant with their second child. Their second daughter, Laila, was born in December 1977. By 1986, Ali and Veronica were divorced. Laila later became a boxer in 1999,[46] despite her father's earlier comments against female boxing in 1978: "Women are not made to be hit in the breast, and face like that... the body's not made to be punched right here [patting his chest]. Get hit in the breast... hard... and all that."[47]
On November 19, 1986, Ali married Yolanda ("Lonnie") Williams. They had been friends since 1964 in Louisville. They have one son, Asaad Amin, whom they adopted when Amin was five.[43][48][49][50][51]
Ali was a resident of Cherry Hill, New Jersey in the early 1970s.[52] Ali has two other daughters, Miya and Khaliah, from extramarital relationships.[43][53]
Ali currently lives in Scottsdale, Arizona with Lonnie. They own a house in Berrien Springs, Michigan, which is for sale. On January 9, 2007, they purchased a house in eastern Jefferson County, Kentucky for $1,875,000.[54] Lonnie converted to Islam from Catholicism in her late 20s.[55]
The Nation of Islam and religious beliefs
Initially, Clay was refused entry to the Nation of Islam (often called the Black Muslims at the time) due to his boxing career.[56] However, after winning the championship from Liston in 1964, the Nation of Islam changed their minds and agreed to recruit him as a member.[56] On Friday, March 6, 1964, Malcolm X took Clay on a guided tour of the UN building (for a second time). The minister then announced that Clay would be granted his "X", renaming him Cassius X. That same night, Elijah Muhammad recorded a statement over the phone to be played over the radio that Clay would be renamed Muhammad (one who is worthy of praise) Ali (fourth rightly guided caliph). Only a few journalists (most notably Howard Cosell) accepted it at that time. Venerable boxing announcer Don Dunphy addressed the champion by his adopted name, as did British reporters. The adoption of this name symbolized his new identity as a member of the Nation of Islam. The name change to "Muhammad Ali" also led to the end of Ali's friendship with Malcolm X, as he would leave the NOI a couple of weeks after Ali joined.[56][57]
Aligning himself with the Nation of Islam made him a lightning rod for controversy, turning the outspoken but popular champion into one of that era's most recognizable and controversial figures. Appearing at rallies with Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad and declaring his allegiance to him at a time when mainstream America viewed them with suspicion—if not outright hostility—made Ali a target of outrage, as well as suspicion. Ali seemed at times to provoke such reactions, with viewpoints that wavered from support for civil rights to outright support of separatism. For example, Ali once stated, in relation to integration: "We who follow the teachings of Elijah Muhammad don't want to be forced to integrate. Integration is wrong. We don't want to live with the white man; that's all."[58] And in relation to inter-racial marriage: "No intelligent black man or black woman in his or her right black mind wants white boys and white girls coming to their homes to marry their black sons and daughters."[58] Indeed, Ali's religious beliefs at the time included the notion that the white man was "the devil" and that white people were not "righteous." Ali claimed that white people hated black people.
Initially, Ali told reporters that his real goal in life was to be a minister for the NOI following his exile. But after Ali mentioned making a comeback to boxing during a 1969 interview, Elijah Muhammad rescinded the boxer's position, stating on the April 4, 1969 issue of Muhammad Speaks: "Mr. Muhammad Ali plainly acted the fool to the whole world."[59] Muhammad claimed Ali deliberately "stepped down off the spiritual platform of Islam to go and see if he can make money in the sports world".[59] Muhammad even went so far to denounce Ali's name telling Muhammad Speaks that Ali's name had reverted back to his birth name, Cassius Clay.[60] Ali was then ousted from the Muslim circle, under Elijah Muhammad, for a year.[61] Ali converted from the Nation of Islam sect to mainstream Sunni Islam in 1975. In a 2004 autobiography, written with daughter Hana Yasmeen Ali, Muhammad Ali attributes his conversion to the shift toward Sunni Islam made by Warith Deen Muhammad after he gained control of the Nation of Islam upon the death of Elijah Muhammad in 1975. Later in 2005 he embraced spiritual practices of Sufism.[62]