Sonji Roi: Everything you need to know about Mohammad Alis first wife

Just like a movie, legendary boxer MuhammadAli met and fell in love with a beautiful cocktail waitress, Sonji Roi, at the age of 22. Before anyone knew it, they had asked the question, she said yes and voila! they were married

A fairy tale indeed. But like all fantasies, the union did not last.

Sonji Roi met and married Muhammad Ali in 1964. That same year, Ali won his first heavyweight championship. They met in July and by August they had tied the knot.

The meeting was conducted courtesy of Muhammad Ali’s manager at the time, Herbert Muhammad.

Report says he proposed the night he met her. Love at first sight? Who would ever know.

Sonji Clay said:

“I met him and he asked me to marry him that night.”

The celebrity couple was married on August 14 in Gary, Indiana. Sonji Roi was 23 years old while Muhammad Ali was almost 22 years old.

Until then, Muhammad Ali had not yet converted to Islam. He still bore his birth name, Cassius Marcellus Clay. Up until the time of their divorce, Sonji was addressed as Mrs. Sonji Clay.

Muhammad Ali was married four times in his life. Sonji was the first. They had no children while they were together.

Out of Ali’s 4 marriages, his union with Sonji was the shortest. Their marriage lasted about 2 years.

With his conversion to Islam came the strain on the marriage union. Ali’s beautiful first wife once showed that the demands of the Muslim religion and Ali’s dedication changed the whole game for her. That’s the reason for their breakup.

“I wouldn’t take on all Muslims. If I did, I probably would have ended up dead.”

Sonji found it difficult and felt brainwashed as she absorbed the Islamic dress patterns and cultures of the time. Despite this, Sonji has been described by close friends as a strong independent woman.

HD “Doc” White, Clay’s friend and record producer, said in an interview with the Sun-Times:

“She was an independent woman and she wanted to be herself”

“She was nice, but she wasn’t a very submissive woman. She was a very, very spirited woman.”

The fact that the lady in question, upon meeting the self-proclaimed “pretty” heavyweight champion, was doing multiple jobs to defend herself was the basis for the above.

The strong woman had done a few jobs in the modeling world. Her beauty suggests she was well suited for the job. She worked as a waitress and was also a singer.

Sonji lost her parents at an early age. She made it her destiny and took on a waitress in nightclubs to support herself.

After her breakup with Mohammad Ali, Sonji Roi launched her career as a singer, although it was short-lived. She was famous for the Here I Am and Here I Stay record.

The single was a ballad, often inspired by her marriage to Muhammad Ali.

She also recorded another single for Aries Record Productions, I Can’t Wait (Till I See My Baby’s Face) .

After her breakup with Ali, Sonji moved back to Chicago from Miami. There she met her second husband, Reynaldo Glover, a corporate lawyer and management consultant.

Reynold Glover was an attorney and former chairman of the board of directors of the City Colleges of Chicago. He was also president of the company that sold what was left of the former Beatrice International Food Co.

While they were together, they had one son, Brian Reynaldo Jr. Sonji also had another son, Herman Griffin from another relationship.

Sonji and Reynold later separated and never remarried.

Glover remarried and had three more children – two sons and a daughter, Ryan, Jharett Brantley, Shea and a grandson.

Reynold, like Sonji, has been married and divorced twice.

On November 27, 2007, 64-year-old Reynold Glover died of complications from pancreatic cancer.

In 2005, Sonji Roi was found dead in her Chaicago home at the age of 59. No autopsy was performed as it was widely believed that she died of natural causes. According to her nephew, Sonji had died of a heart attack.

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Sonji Roi: Everything you need to know about Mohammad Alis first wife

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