Ali's Daughter Blames Weight Gain On Uncle's Beatings.

20-05-2007 14:01

Ali's Daughter Blames Weight Gain On Uncle's Beatings.... Muhammad Ali's daughter Khaliah Ali has hit out at her uncle, blaming his brutal beatings during her childhood for her immense weight gain as a teen.

The plus-size model and fashion designer - whose weight peaked at 325 pounds (147.5 kilograms) - makes the revelations about the un-named relative in her new self-help book Fighting Weight, where she also discusses her decision to undergo gastric surgery.

She says, "He came in yelling at me as if he were my father. 'Round one, let's see what you can do, kid. Round two, round three.' "Every time I'd get up he'd beat me down again or hit me by my crotch. He pulled me up by my hair and the back of my shirt and dragged me toward the kitchen. He was going for a knife and said he was going to end it for me... I blacked out. When I came to, he was kicking me in the face."

"I felt ashamed, the way victims do, as if it's somehow their fault."

Ali went under the knife in August 2004 and lost half her body weight, finally giving her the self-confidence she craved.

She adds, "(On bad days) I'd eat a thousand calories worth of food and try to fool myself by washing it down with Diet Coke...

"I couldn't be naked with anybody, couldn't wear a backless dress. (But) I'm no longer part of the fat pack."