Muhammad Ali’s impoverished son

Muhammad Ali Jr. was 14 years old when he realized his father was seriously ill, said Chris White in the New York Post. The legendary boxer had picked his son up for a visit. “We got in the car, and I said I needed to stop for something to eat,” says Ali Jr., now 41. “By the time I came back out, he was gone.” When he eventually “turned the car around and came back to pick me up, I said, ‘Daddy, why did you leave me?’ He said, ‘I kind of forgot you were in the car.’” Today, the effects of his father’s boxing-induced Parkinson’s are much more visible. “His hands shake and his face is cold,” says Ali Jr. “His expressions are numb. It isn’t him.” It’s like he’s “in a coma,” he says. In fact, the two now rarely see one another—and while his dad has amassed a $100 million fortune, Ali Jr. lives off handouts and food stamps in the dangerous Chicago neighborhood of West Englewood. “He slipped out of my life the moment he got married to Lonnie,” says Ali Jr., referring to the boxer’s fourth wife. “The trips to see me stopped immediately. My life now is crap. If my father was still around and coherent, he’d help me,” he says. “But that’s not the case, is it?”

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up