Muhammad Ali’s £45k a month alimony for nine kids
'Soft touch' Ali could never turn down pleas for cash from friends and family
MUHAMMAD Ali was shelling out £45,000 a month to his family because he felt guilty over his string of affairs, one of his closest friends has claimed.
Ex-salesman Tim Shanahan said the star hated confrontation and claims he was fleeced by some of those close to him.
He revealed boxing legend never turned down pleas for cash from relatives or friends.
Ali, who died on Friday aged 74, had at least nine children, seven born within his four marriages. The £45,000 a month for his family covered items such as car payments, mortgages and insurance.
Shanahan wrote in his book Running with the Champ: “He didn’t see what was happening around him as ‘bad behaviour’. Instead he felt he was making life better for other people and giving the gift of happiness.
Shanahan, 69 added: “And I think he felt he was atoning for his bad behaviour, like having two daughters out of wedlock.”
He recalled Ali’s ill-fated investments, including a chain of Champburger diners. But he claimed members of the star’s inner circle were also “actively ripping him off”.
He said Ali once told him: “I’m a soft touch. I don’t always see what's happening around me, so anybody could take advantage of me. Who am I to judge anyone else?”
Apparent splits within the Ali clan and fears over further love-children have caused tension since the death of the star, who left an estimated £60million fortune. But last night a source insisted: “They remain united as a family.”
Earlier Ali’s body, in a casket wrapped in gold cloth, arrived home to his birthplace of Louisville, Kentucky.
After the private jet touched down 11 funeral cars and a hearse pulled on to the tarmac. They were then given a police escort to a funeral home ahead of Friday’s burial.
Outside Ali’s boyhood home, now a museum, a beekeeper had to deal with a swarm opposite a sign bearing The Greatest’s most famous phrase: “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”
Meanwhile daughter Maryum Ali, 47, said she believed his Parkinson’s may have been caused by pesticides used at his Deer Lake training camp in Pennsylvania, then made worse by boxing.
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