It’s the end of a legend. King Pelé died on Thursday, December 29, at the Albert-Einstein hospital in Sao Paulo, where he had been admitted a month earlier, as revealed by his relatives. Suffering from colon cancer, he had been surrounded by all his children for several days, who knew that their father was living his last moments.
If he did not know a life as eventful as that of Diego Maradona, the legend of football still lived many love stories, punctuated by several liaisons. Officially the father of seven children, the man who died at the age of 82 admitted that he did not know how many children he was actually the father of. Married for the first time in 1966 with Rosemeri dos Reis Cholbi, he had welcomed three children with her, before finally divorcing in 1982 and meeting another woman.
Pelé married a gospel singer
After his first divorce, Pelé, whose real name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento, decided to start a serious relationship with a psychologist and gospel singer, Assiria Lemos Seixas. The couple married in April 1994, before welcoming twins, Joshua and Celeste, two years later. For many years, the one who won the World Cup three times with Brazil had lived a beautiful love story with his wife. Finally, the couple had divorced in 2007, after 13 years together.
In 2020, Assiria Lemos Seixas had, however, been talked about. Indeed, Pelé’s second wife had started legal proceedings against her ex-husband for non-payment of alimony. After that, it was especially the third wife of the former footballer who had attracted attention. This is Marcia Cibele Aoki, a businesswoman of Japanese origin, 24 years her junior. A big age difference that didn’t seem to bother Pelé who considered her his “definitive love”.
Pelé © CYRIL MOREAU
