Legendary footballer Pele has revealed that he has had so many affairs that he doesn’t know how many kids he has fathered. The Brazilian World Cup hero, who has been married three times, also claimed that his wives and girlfriends were aware that he was unfaithful.
The 80-year-old has revealed all this in a new documentary, titled Pele, which will out on Netflix this week.
“In all honesty I’ve had a few affairs, some of which resulted in children, but I’ve only learned about them later,” Pele is quoted as saying in the documentary.
“My first wife, first girlfriend, knew about it. I never lied.”
Pele has seven known children, including Sandra Machado (from an affair with his housemaid Anisia Machado), who he refused to acknowledge despite a 1996 court ruling that declared she was his daughter. Machado died in 2006 after battling with cancer.
Five of his children—Kelly, Edinho, Jennifer, and twins Joshua and Celeste— came from his first two marriages to Rosemeri dos Reis Cholbi and Assiria Lemos Seixas.
Pele’s first marriage ended in 1982 after he was romantically linked to Brazilian model Maria da Graca Xuxa, who was 17 at the time. He married gospel singer Assiria in 1994, but the couple got divorced in 2008.
He lives near Sao Paul with his third wife Marcia Aoki, who he married in 2016.
