Brazilian professional footballer Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known by his stage name Pelé, primarily played as a forward. 

He was among the most prosperous and well-known sports stars of the 20th century and was regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and FIFA’s “The greatest.”

As a professional football player for Brazil, he helped the country win three World Cups. He is widely credited with bestowing the nickname “The Beautiful Game” on soccer. 

Even after his retirement in 1977, Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pelé, continued to be a well-known and beloved athlete.

He died on December 29 at the age of 82 from a variety of illnesses, including colon cancer.

Throughout his career, there was a lot of controversy about Pelé’s extramarital relationships. 

He was married three times: from 1966 to 1982 to Rosemeri dos Reis Cholbi, from 1994 to 2008 to Assyria Lemos Seixas, and from 2016 to his death to Marcia Aoki.

How many children does Pelé have? 

Throughout his life, he had several relationships, some of which ended in romance and others that gave rise to conflict.

The 82-year-old household figure, who has more than 1,000 goals in his career, admitted in his Netflix documentary Pelé that his youthful promiscuity left him unable to keep track of the number of children he fathered.

According to accounts, Pelé had seven children: Kely, Flávia, Sandra, Edson, Jennifer, Joshua, and Celeste.

In the documentary, he acknowledged being unfaithful to the ladies he was seeing. In 1964, the celebrity had a romantic relationship with a housekeeper named Alicia Machado. The affair between the two resulted in the birth of Sandra Machado, their daughter. 

Pelé initially disagreed that Sandra was his child, and he rejected having a DNA test done. Ania took legal action against Pelé as a result of this to force him to claim Sandra as his own.

Ania went on to write the book The Daughter Pelé Never Wanted after DNA evidence established the child was indeed his.

Pelé’s first three marriages occurred with Rosemeri dos Reis Cholbi in the late 1960s. Together, they had three children: son Edinho Nascimento, daughters Kely and Jennifer, and.

Many years later, when Pelé was romantically related to Brazilian singer Xuxa, the couple divorced. The famed four-year relationship between the pop sensation and the World Cup champion ended in 1986.

In the 1990s, Pelé wed Assiria Ls emoSeixas, his second wife. Joshua and Celeste, twins, were born to them at the same time. Pelé and Assyria got divorced after 12 years of marriage.

A few years later, the celebrity wed Brazilian businesswoman Marcia Cibele Aoki in her third and last marriage.

In addition, Pelé welcomed two children with numerous women he had never married: his fifth child, Flávia, was born to writer Lenita Kurtz and his fourth daughter, Sandra Regina Machado, was taken to housekeeper Alicia Machado.