Muhammad Ali’s Ex-Wife Spills Intimate Details About Their Marriage

Muhammad Ali called himself the greatest — and many people would agree with him. He charmed the world with his never-before-seen style in and out of the boxing ring. Men wanted to be him, and women wanted to be with him. But now Khalilah Ali — the boxer’s second wife — has revealed what the champ was really like behind closed doors. And what she’s said isn’t always pretty.

Punch-drunk love

Khalilah had a front-row seat for the most famous and tumultuous period of Ali’s life and career. You see, the pair were married from 1967 to 1976. That spans the time from Ali’s arrest for dodging the draft through the “Fight of the Century,” the “Rumble in the Jungle,” and the “Thrilla in Manilla.” So Khalilah saw the very good — and the very bad.

Caught cold

Khalilah claims that she actually met Ali for the first time when she was ten years old. Ali was still known as Cassius Clay back then, and Khalilah was going by her given name of Belinda Boyd. But the young Khalilah apparently wasn’t blown away by the boxer — and she had some prophetic parting words for him.

Knockdown

“Brother, come back when you get a real name. Then we can talk,” Khalilah claimed she told Ali, according to a 2011 article by the Miami New Times. Ali did just that, of course. The boxer had already become Muhammad Ali by the time he married a 17-year-old Khalilah in 1967. But she wasn’t done influencing his life just yet.

Go the distance

Khalilah has even claimed that she was the one who turned Ali into the “people’s champ.” This was after Ali had been blacklisted for declining to go to Vietnam. And in private, the boxing star apparently hadn’t been as confident as his public persona suggested. “He was worried he was going to go to jail,” Khalilah told the Miami New Times.

Bob and weave

Ali was right to be worried. He was handed a half-decade jail sentence — and only allowed out on bail. But while the boxer worried privately about his career, Khalilah said, she kept him in the public’s consciousness. Khalilah got the press on his side, and he ultimately regained his license. So it was a match made in heaven... right?

Close companion

Well… maybe. Khalilah and Ali had four kids during their marriage. They include Ali’s first child, Maryum, as well as twins Jamilah and Rasheda, and his only biological son, Muhammad Ali. Jr. And in 1975 Khalilah took her new first name — which translates as “companion of Allah.” So good things happened between the pair. It just wasn’t to last.

All the best

“He was the best part of my life,” Khalilah confessed to NBC in 2019. “And we stood for beauty, we stood for family.” Looking back, Khalilah also said that “it was easy to forgive” Ali for the things he’d done wrong. Perhaps she was viewing the past with rose-tinted glasses, but she did have plenty of good things to say about her ex-husband.

Poetry in motion

Speaking to an audience at the 2014 Sundance Festival, Khalilah said that Ali was a great partner “most of the time.” She’s also spoken fondly of the times Ali used her words and rhymes to promote himself. That famous “I Am the Greatest” speech? Khalilah told NBC 6 that it came from a poem she’d penned about Ali as a kid.

Child’s play

“He gets on TV and says my poem, and I'm going, ‘What? He really did it?'’” Khlalilah recalled. “I was just playing with the guy!” And that apparently wasn’t the only quote that Ali would steal from his wife. “A lot of people don’t realize most of that stuff was my mouth running off,” Khalilah claimed in 2014.

Thrills and spills

The one-time Belinda Boyd even reckons that the “Thrilla in Manila” tagline came from a conversation she had with Ali. “I said, ‘You gone always steal my stuff?’” she joked when talking to NBC. But the reason why Khalilah had supposedly said there was going to be a “thriller in Manila” hinted at the darker side of their marriage.

Infighting

“I was getting ready to fight his girlfriend over there,” Khalilah continued. “And I said it’s gonna be a ‘thriller in Manila.’” Yep, Ali had his fair share of other women during his second marriage. “Women here, women there. Having babies out of wedlock,” Khalilah recalled to the Miami New Times. And sometimes it got too much for his then-wife.

On the ropes

In 1971 Ali took part in the “Fight of the Century” against Joe Frazier… and lost. But Khalilah claimed that she’d known it was going to happen. “I saw how cocky he was acting before the fight,” she said. What did she mean by this? Simply that Ali was spending too much time messing with other women.

Below the belt

“He was fooling around with all these girls,” Khalilah explained. “One night I caught him with one of his women. I predicted then he was going to lose to Frazier.” But she’d said nothing at the time so that — Khalilah claimed — she could teach her husband a lesson. And it’s one that Khalilah believed Ali learned well.

Roughhousing

“For him to succeed, I had to bring him down in order to pick him back up,” Khalilah said. She claimed that Ali then “started listening” to her advice. Her tough-love game also apparently helped the champ defeat George Foreman in the “Rumble in the Jungle.” But all was still not well at home.

Point deduction

“I wanted there to be a oneness — I didn’t want to be a half — but he couldn’t understand that,” Khalilah told People in 1978. She insisted then that their eventual split wasn’t due to Ali’s notorious wandering eye. But this contradicted an earlier interview she’d given. And the fact that Ali was unfaithful to her certainly caused a lot of marital strife.

Change of heart

Not that Khlalilah had been especially surprised. “I knew that this was going to happen before I married him,” she told People in 1976. But knowing about infidelity and experiencing it are two different things. And Khalilah’s attitude toward Ali and his other women seems to have changed over time. At one point, for example, she even brought the mistresses along when Ali was preparing for a big fight.

Rumble in the Jungle

This wasn’t long before Ali’s famous bout with George Foreman in late 1974 — the so-called “Rumble in the Jungle.” For this event, Khalilah was apparently willing to put aside all of her problems with Ali’s other women. “This is between us and Allah, Muslim fighting a Christian,” Khalilah told NBC.

Side project

“All this girl thing I had to just put that to the side, because this is more important,” Khalilah explained. “I had to treat him like a child and say look, this is my fight. We’re winning this fight!” So what did she do? According to Khalilah, she invited Ali’s girlfriends and illegitimate children to join them in what was then known as Zaire.

Show of force

“I had a briefcase with passports of everybody,” Khalilah said. “I ran the whole show.” And the tactic worked… in a professional sense anyway. Ali knocked out Foreman during that famous fight and reclaimed his heavyweight crown. Outside of the ring, though, Ali pushed his wife over the edge. It was the beginning of the end.

Seconds out

The problem was that not only was the boxer seeing a woman named Veronica Porsche, but that he also brought her to Zaire. And when Khalilah learned about this new betrayal, she was apoplectic.

Fighting talk

Khalilah reportedly almost forgot about her resolve to focus on the fight and threatened to travel back to the U.S. People later reported that the couple had a “terrible fight” and that it was only Ali’s entourage who managed to calm Khalilah down. But the problems with Porsche had only just started.

Split decision

Khalilah and Ali didn’t break up then and there. Instead, the pair came up with an unusual solution. “I actually shared her with him,” Khalilah told NBC. So the couple seemingly became a throuple for a time. But while that may have perhaps suited Ali, Khalilah had an ulterior motive for agreeing to the relationship.

Clinch

“I agreed to it to see how far he would go with the affair,” Khalilah told Miami New Times. “I wanted to show the world what he was putting me through.” She also told NBC that her aim was to prove to Ali that the relationship wouldn’t work out. And while Khalilah was right, it was she who paid the price.

Sucker punch

Ali wasn’t shy about his relationship with Porsche. He’d regularly take her to events or outings alongside Khalilah. So while reporters at the time might have otherwise only focused on Ali’s boxing prowess, the man seemed to also welcome media scrutiny of his private life. The last straw for Khalilah was in 1975.

Thrilla in Manila

This was right before the Thrilla in Manila. Khalilah hadn’t planned to attend that fight at first… until she found out that Ali had brought Porsche along instead. There was even news footage of Ali and his lover meeting the then-president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos. And in the clip, Ali apparently implies that Porsche is his wife. Khalilah wasn’t happy.

Walkout bout

The hurt wife got on the next plane to the Philippines. Then, when she found Ali, the boxer was apparently involved in another “fight of the century.” The media reported that Khalilah went off the rails, trashing the champ’s hotel room and even scratching his face. “I had been utterly humiliated,” Khalilah later confessed. There was no coming back.

Throw in the towel

“I just felt it was time to move on after that,” Khalilah admitted. “I couldn’t tolerate the foolishness I was going through.” She flew back to the U.S. and promptly left the family’s main home. Khalilah took the kids with her and filed for divorce a year later. And Ali’s actions understandably left her hurt and resentful.

Parting words

“I left him because he wasn’t what he said he was,” Khalilah told People in 1978. But she didn’t stop there. She said that the split was down to Ali’s “lack of morals and disrespect to the family.” Khalilah made it clear that she thought the man the public believed was a hero was actually an absent father.

Personality clash

“Anybody can have a son, but it takes a man to be a father,” Khalilah added. “[Ali] wasn’t there even when we were together.” She then turned to belittling the boxer’s personality away from the cameras. While Ali was proving himself in the ring, Khalilah said, “his other actions” showed that he wasn’t a real man.

Hard knocks

Khalilah delivered the knock-out blow soon afterward. She claimed that the boxing legend had let the fame go to his head — and that had caused him to lose his way. “I don’t think he deserves the name Muhammad Ali,” she said. “I’m going to call him Cassius Clay from now on.” Ouch.

Low blow

If Ali had heard that one, he no doubt would’ve been hurt. After all, he’d changed his name from Cassius Clay to represent his personal freedom. “Cassius Clay is a slave name,” the Louisville Lip said in the mid-1960s. “I didn’t choose it, and I don’t want it.” So for Khalilah to throw that back in his face? Yikes.

Settling scores

Khaliliah cited “desertion, adultery, and mental cruelty” in her divorce papers. It took the judge only four months to settle the matter, with Khalilah and the kids reportedly getting about $6 million. Ali went on to marry Porsche, and Khalilah set about moving on without the champ, too. But relations between the pair did eventually get better.

Forever after

“Ali and I remain good friends,” Khalilah told the Miami New Times in 2011. She even said the pair “can talk on the phone forever.” And after the boxer died in June 2016, his second wife boasted about their post-marriage relationship. “I hope a lot of people learn from us,” Khalilah said to People.

Life lessons

The lesson Khalilah wanted people to learn from her and Ali? That divorced couples should be “kind to each other” and “free to see their children anytime.” And she no longer seemed to harbor the bitterness that characterized her 1978 interview. “We had a beautiful life,” the boxer’s second wife said. That wasn’t all.

Legacy match

“Muhammad Ali was my husband, my first love, my best friend, and also my legacy,” Khalilah added. So, she’d come a long way from writing off her ex-husband as disrespectful. But then Khalilah had spent the past 30 years moving on with her own life. She even found herself getting married again.

Three times a lady

In fact, Khalilah got married three more times after divorcing Ali. None of the unions were to last, and so Khalilah had to strike out on her own to make a living. She’s bounced around the country and various professions ever since. And she’s been threatening to write a book about her life with Ali for at least ten years.

Acting up

While we await the arrival of the book — and the many secrets that it may divulge — Khalilah’s made a return to acting. Back in the late 1970s, she had minor roles in such productions as the Jane Fonda thriller The China Syndrome. More recently, she’s appeared in a 2021 episode of The Grid.

Happy talk

“I may not be the richest person, but I’m a happy person,” Khalilah told the Daily Mail in 2016. And that’s just fine by her, too. “Money ruined Muhammad Ali’s life and character. He would have been better off poor,” she added. And if Khalilah ever does write that book, she’ll no doubt only add to Ali’s already complicated legacy.

Dark matters

“Ali had a dark side — an evil side,” Khalilah told Jonathan Eig for 2017’s Ali: A Life. And even with that, he still managed to inspire a new generation of boxers — Mike Tyson included. In fact, some may say that Tyson took his loyalty to Ali a little too far...

A night to remember

In June 1979 Ali announced he was retiring from boxing. But it would be short-lived, as in the spring of 1980 the public learned that he’d be coming out of retirement to fight the WBC heavyweight champion. And at that point, this was none other than Larry Holmes. The stage was set for a historic encounter.

The start of Tyson's feud

Holmes and Ali were friends and sparring partners for the first half of the 1970s. “We must have sparred a million rounds in that time,” Holmes told GQ in 2017. “But the first time we got in the ring together he gave me a black eye. And I loved it!”

Showing off his injury

Holmes continued, “They tried to put ice on my eye to bring the swelling down, but I told them, ‘Nah, nah, nah. Muhammad Ali gave that to me, and I want to show this one off!’ People thought I was crazy because I was bragging about getting beaten up by Ali. And Ali liked me from the beginning, and I stayed with him.”

All eyes on the ring

July saw the contracts finalized for a bout in October at Las Vegas’ Caesar’s Palace. Ali would earn a reported $8 million, while Holmes would be taking home around three-quarters of that amount. A 24,000-capacity outdoor venue was specially built for the fight, with a record $6 million being brought in by ticket sales alone. Oh, and two billion watched on TV around the world.

Worries about Ali

But, while “The Last Hurrah” was undoubtedly an enormous moneymaker and a worldwide event, it arguably should never have taken place at all. A dossier was sent to the Nevada State Athletic Commission a couple of months before the fight. It was compiled by medics from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. They’d thoroughly examined Ali and made some very worrying findings.

Problems with his brain

The physical examinations were fairly routine, with Dr. John Mitchell writing that Ali was in excellent general medical health. But the neurological results were where the real problems lay. Dr. Frank Howard’s tests had discovered that Ali had trouble putting his finger on his nose and that his agility was impaired.

Given the green light

Ali had also complained of slurred speech and said his hands sometimes tingled. Even more alarming was the report’s statement that Ali had a lesion in the outer layer of his brain. Amazingly, though, despite these findings, Howard concluded that he couldn’t pinpoint one glaring factor to stop Ali from boxing. So a license was granted for the bout.

"I’m gonna whup my Holmes"

The Clinic’s findings also weren’t reported publicly, which left comeback king Ali free to hype the bout as only he could. “I’m dedicating this fight to all the people who’ve been told, ‘you can’t do it,’” he proclaimed. “I’m dedicating this fight to all of you people who have a Larry Holmes in your life. I’m gonna whup my Holmes, and I want you to whup your Holmes.”

Uncomfortable to watch

In practice, though, it was Ali who received the whupping. The 38-year-old was resoundingly dominated by the 30-year-old Holmes – turned into a human punching bag for ten rounds. To most people, it was sad to watch. No one wanted to see a great such as Ali humbled in such a manner.

"This fight was an abomination"

Actor Sylvester Stallone, who was in the crowd that night, once remarked that the fight was “like watching an autopsy on a man who’s still alive.” Following the tenth round, Ali’s trainer Angelo Dundee threw in the towel, calling an end to the harrowing bout. In the aftermath Freddie Pacheco, once a ring doctor for Ali, stated, “All the people involved in this fight should’ve been arrested. This fight was an abomination, a crime.”

Tyson was watching, too

Little did anyone know, though, that on this fateful night a 14-year-old Tyson was watching the bout on television in Albany, New York. Along with friend – and future trainer – Jay Bright, they’d made the trip with D’Amato. The three were excited to watch Ali take on Holmes, and the defeat he suffered hit them all hard.

"I was offended"

“I was offended by how bad he beat up Ali,” Tyson revealed during an ESPN interview in 2011. “When we drove home to Catskill, nobody in the car said a word, we were all so upset.” And the following day became a defining moment in Tyson’s life, as he’d actually get the opportunity to speak to Ali.

Speaking to his hero

“The next morning, Cus was on the phone with Muhammad Ali after taking this shellacking from Holmes,” Tyson continued. “He said to Ali, ‘I have this young black kid who is going to be heavyweight champion someday and I want you to talk to him.’” The next thing the young Tyson knew, he was speaking to his hero.

Planning revenge

Incredibly, he then made a solemn vow to Ali, one that must have taken the icon by surprise. Tyson recalled that he’d told Ali, “When I grow up, I’ll fight Holmes, and I’ll get him back for you.” This promise of in-ring vengeance coming from a 14-year-old might have sounded farcical, of course. But, then again, not every 14-year-old is Mike Tyson. So maybe Ali believed it.

The time had come

And seven years later, a 21-year-old Tyson was dead set on making good on his promise. In a titanic encounter dubbed “Heavyweight History,” he took on a 38-year-old Holmes who, like Ali before him, had come out of retirement specifically for the fight. It took place at Atlantic City’s Trump Plaza and, incredibly, Ali was a special guest in the arena.

Ali had not forgotten the promise

Tyson told ESPN that not only did Ali remember what he’d promised him as a revenge-fueled teen, but that the icon also made a point of mentioning it. He said Ali came up to him before the bout and whispered in his ear, “Remember what you said – get him for me.” As if Tyson needed any more motivation!

What would happen in the ring?

Interestingly, while Holmes was paid $3 million by promoter Don King for the fight, many in the industry doubted its widespread appeal. Holmes’ last two bouts before retirement were losses to Michael Spinks, and he hadn’t boxed competitively in two years. Many felt Tyson would wipe the floor with Holmes, and who’d want to pay to watch that?

Tension running high

In the end, it led to the fight being shown via HBO, which was unusual at the time. According to Michael Carbert of boxing website The Fight City, though, the bout’s appeal was drastically underestimated. The atmosphere in the Atlantic City Convention Hall was extraordinary. And even those who were staging the fight were surprised by just how much of a buzz there was in the building.

Tyson was determined to win

Perhaps the industry had forgotten that the fight was effectively a narrative as old as time – the battle between a veteran king and a youthful challenger to the throne. This was Tyson’s opportunity to beat a true legend of the business. It was his chance to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was as talented and as unstoppable as he seemed to be.

Years of revenge unleashed

Indeed, at this point in time, Tyson was as fierce a competitor as anyone had ever witnessed. He tore into Holmes from the opening bell with his frightening pace and unparalleled aggression. And the older man was rocked back on his heels. By the end of round one, Holmes still hadn’t inflicted a single significant blow on his young opponent.

An illegal blow

But by the time they got to round three, Tyson was visibly annoyed by Holmes’ tactic of holding his opponent’s arms in order to protect himself. In truth, though, it was all Holmes could do to stem Tyson’s vicious assaults. The younger fighter then gave Holmes a blatantly illegal low blow and even hit him with a left after the bell had rung to end the round.

Couldn't control his anger

It was typical of Tyson, who let his temper get the better of him many times in his career. But it also gave the audience the impression that Holmes was simply delaying the inevitable. If Tyson managed to free himself from his opponent’s stalling tactics, Holmes would be in serious trouble. And, ultimately, this is what happened during round four.

Went down and stayed down

Proceedings got very uncomfortable in this round when Tyson managed to knock Holmes off his feet twice. After both right hands, Holmes hit the deck but chose to almost immediately pop back up again. It was obvious his legs had turned to jelly, though, and when Tyson landed a third right hand on the jaw, Holmes went down and stayed down.

Holmes' response

Tyson had beaten a former world champion by knockout and had begun to secure his place in the pantheon of greats. After the bout, Holmes failed to do a full interview, but he did inform HBO, “[Tyson]’s a sharper puncher than most guys I fought, but he doesn’t hit as hard as others. Mike Tyson is better than I thought he was, a true champ. He’s awkward, hard to hit.”

"I am the best fighter in the world"

For his part, Tyson was happy to revel in victory – though he didn’t make any mention of his added Ali incentive at the time. “Larry Holmes was a game champion,” Tyson told the media. “Early in the fight, he was leery and cautious. But in the third round, when he started punching a little, I knew the [knockout] punch would come. I am the best fighter in the world. I am the champ.”

Holmes' thoughts on Ali

In a bittersweet postscript to the story, Holmes admitted in the GQ interview that he was extremely conflicted about how his fight with Ali turned out. “Yes, it was really hard because he was my buddy,” Holmes revealed. “He was the guy that gave me a job. He was the guy that taught me how to fight.”

Showing remorse

Holmes also flat out denied knowing that Ali had any kind of ill health going into the fight. “No, he wasn’t sick when I fought him. He was still OK,” Holmes said. “He was 38, and I don’t think that is too old for a boxer. I fought on until I was 52.” Regardless of what he knew or didn’t know, though, a remorseful Holmes went to see Ali after the fight.

"Why did you beat me up?"

“Listen, even after I beat him in our fight in 1980, I went into his dressing room afterwards and he was lying on the bed having a rub-down because he was so sore,” Holmes continued. “And I said, ‘Ali, you know I love you. You’ve always been my man.’ And he said, ‘If you loved me, why did you beat me up?’ But he never held a grudge, even to the day he died.”

Avenging his hero

Ultimately, though, even if Ali didn’t hold a grudge over the loss, a certain 14-year-old Iron Mike did. Whether or not he truly believed Holmes crossed a line on that night, he used the hurt he’d felt to avenge his fallen hero. And it all led to Holmes paying the piper for something he truthfully hadn’t taken any joy in doing.