Dwyane Wade Wins Custody of 2 Sons
After a long, drawn-out and bitter custody battle, NBA baller Dwyane Wade finally gets custody of his two young sons. A Chicago court has awarded Wade sole “care, custody and control” of his boys, ages 8 and 3, Friday, and according to the victorious Dad, “a huge weight is off my back.”
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Wade’s 2007 separation and eventual divorce from his ex, Siohvaughn, who was oftentimes referred to as being “mentally unstable,” was a vicious situation that played out in the public eye.
There was plenty of mud-slinging, name-calling and character assassination to fill the day of any gossip-hound. The ex-Mrs. Wade even accused her hubby of giving her an STD, adultery and not spending time with his children. Oftentimes, during the proceedings, it seemed that the couple was only a few days short of doing drive-bys on each other.
Wade, in turn, claimed he was the victim of his wife’s unrestrained temper and that she would physically abuse him throughout their union.
Over a three-year period, Wade’s attempt to finally part ways from his high school sweetheart were far too often sidetracked by the fact that she went through a slew of attorneys. Oddly enough, all of the Mrs. Wade’s lawyers withdrew from handling her divorce except for one. Still, the couple was finally granted a divorce last June.
As far as the custody trial, according to Wade’s attorney James Pritikin, the Miami Heat superstar’s custody proceedings “was one of the longest ever in Cook County Illinois’ history.”
During the custody trial, Siohvaughn actually filed a lawsuit against Wade, who was named “Father of the Year” in 2007 by the National Father’s Day Committee, alleging that he gave his kids a medium-sized Christmas gift and gave girlfriend actress, Gabrielle Union, a larger one.
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Siohvaughn then went on to claim that Wade owned guns, abused his kids, engaged in sexual acts with Union in front of the children, used drugs and drank excessively. The court dismissed the lawsuit, finding it baseless.
Now Wade is relieved that his fiercest battle is officially over, he told the Associated Press:
“My life changed in a huge way. Mentally, I’ve been preparing for it for over a year now. To me, it’s bigger than that. For me, it shows a lot of people that you need to fight to be in your kids’ lives sometimes. You fight until you can’t fight any more. That’s all I was trying to be, a father in my kids’ lives.”
Meanwhile, Siohvaughn was awarded “regular parenting time” on alternating weekends in Miami as well as several other times during the year, including Mother’s Day. Wade has also repeatedly been quoted as saying that he wants his boys to have a healthy relationship with their mother.
According to the 102-page court ruling, the presiding judge, Renee G. Goldfarb had a few choice words for Siohvaughn:
“This court finds that [Siohvaughn Wade] has embarked on an unstoppable and relentless pattern of conduct for over two years to alienate the children from their father, and lacks either the ability or the willingness to facilitate, let alone encourage, a close and continuing relationship between them.”
But all’s NOT well, that ends well, there is still the financial portion of the Wade vs. ex-Wade saga to contend with and so stay tuned ….
http://www.bvonsports.com/2011/03/14/dwyane-wade-wins-custody-of-2-sons/
