Pele to marry for third time

16:12, 14 August, 2014

YEREVAN, AUGUST 14, ARMENPRESS. Brazilian soccer legend Pele is to marry for a third time at the age of 73.

He is planning to tie the knot with a businesswoman 32 years his junior named Marcia Cibele Aoki. The pair has been dating since 2010, according to Britain's The Sun newspaper.

Pele, real name Edson Arantes do Nascimento, has been married twice before. He has seven children.

Born on October 23, 1940, in Três Corações, Brazil, soccer legend Pelé became a superstar with his performance in the 1958 World Cup. Pelé played professionally in Brazil for two decades, winning three World Cups along the way, before joining the New York Cosmos late in his career. Named FIFA co-Player of the Century in 1999, he is a global ambassador for soccer and other humanitarian causes.

On 21 February 1966, Pelé married Rosemeri dos Reis Cholbi. He has two daughters Kelly Cristina ( born 13 January 1967) who married Dr. Arthur DeLuca, and Jennifer (1978), as well as a son Edson ("Edinho", born 27 August 1970). The couple divorced in 1982. From 1981 to 1986, Pelé had been romantically linked with Xuxa and was seen influential in launching the career of the model who was 17 when they started to date. In April 1994 Pelé married psychologist andgospel singer Assíria Lemos Seixas, who gave birth on 28 September 1996 to twins Joshua and Celeste through fertility treatments. They are now separated. Also Pele had at least two children from former affairs. Sandra Macedo, his daughter with a housemaid Anizia Machado in 1964, for years fought to be acknowledged by Pelé, who refused to submit to DNA tests. Although she was recognized by courts as his daughter based on DNA evidence in 1993, Pelé never acknowledged his eldest daughter even after her death, in 2006, nor her two children Octavio and Gabriel. Pelé had had another daughter, Flavia Kurts, in an extra-marital affair in 1968 with a journalist called Lenita Kurtz. Flavia was recognized by him as his daughter.

In 1970, Pelé was investigated by the Brazilian military dictatorship for suspected leftist sympathies. Declassified documents show Pelé was investigated after being handed a manifesto calling for the release of political prisoners. Pelé himself did not get further involved within political struggles in the country. Eventually Pelé has been criticized in the public opinion for his conservative views. In June 2013, during the Brazilian protests, he asked for people to "forget the demonstrations" and support the Brazilian National Football Team. In November 2012, Pelé underwent a successful hip operation. In May 2014, his son Edinhowas jailed for 33 years for laundering money from drug trafficking.


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