Pelé: See who’s who in the King’s family

The world saw the commotion surrounding the death of King Pelé, aged 82. However, many people do not know who are the people who were closest to him in the course of his life. Among many passions and children, Pelé had a large family.

MOM AND DAD

Dona Maria Celeste is Pelé’s mother, currently 100 years old and a resident of Santos. Her father, already deceased, was João Ramos do Nascimento, known as Dondinho, who died in 1996. Dondinho was also a player and, according to Pelé, a good one.

WOMEN IN SKIN

In 1963, aged 23, the then Santos Futebol Clube player had a quick relationship with Anísia Machado, and with her he had a daughter named Sandra. It was only with DNA tests (he contested the results and they had to be re-done) that Sandra got the right to use her father’s last name.

In 1966, when he was 26 years old, he married Rosemari de Reis Cholbicon, with whom he had three children. The relationship, however, came to an end in the mid-1980s.

Between 1981 and 1986, the former player dated Xuxa Meneghel. She was about to turn 18, and he was 41. In her book “Memories” (272 pages. Editora Globo), Xuxa says she has “contradictory feelings” when she thinks about the time of courtship. She also recalls being betrayed numerous times.

In the early 1990s, Pelé started dating gospel singer Assiria Seixas Lemos, who adopted his surname and became Assiria Nascimento. With her, he married in 1994 and had twin children.

The last woman was businesswoman Márcia Aoki, 56, whom she married in 2016, but whom she had known since the 1980s. She was born in Penápolis (479 km from SP) and was always beside her husband’s coffin .

THE CHILDREN OF THE KING

Edinho, 52, Jennifer, 43 and Kely, 54 are the children he had with Rosemeri. Edinho was a player and today he is a soccer coach. Kely, the oldest, has a degree in visual arts and lives in New York.

The twins Celeste and Joshua, 26, are the result of his relationship with gospel singer Assiria Seixas Lemos, with whom the marriage lasted 14 years and ended in 2008. Joshua tried to make a career in football, but failed.

THE BROTHERS

Maria Lúcia is Pelé’s older sister, now 78 years old, who lives with her mother Celeste in Santos. She even went to the hospital to visit Pelé. The King’s other brother is Jair, known as Zoca, who was also a player and died in 2020 from complications from prostate cancer, aged 77.

HEIRS NOT RECOGNIZED OR OUT OF MARRIAGE

In 1996, Sandra managed to take the last name of Pelé, who never recognized her, in court. That was ten years before she died of cancer. Pelé did not attend the funeral.

Octávio Felinto Neto, 24, and Gabriel Arantes do Nascimento, 22, Pelé’s grandsons and Sandra’s children, said they forgave their grandfather moments before his death.

In 2002, the former player assumed the paternity of Flávia Cristina Kurtz, at the time 34 years old, who was born in Porto Alegre (RS). She is the result of a relationship with then-journalism student Lenita Kurtz. Pelé met the physiotherapist heiress in 1994.