Football legend Pele who died on the last day of December 2020 has reportedly named his ‘secret’ daughter in his will after denying for years that she was his child. The Brazilian soccer icon had previously refused to accept her as his daughter which made the lady very heartbroken when she was 17 years old. The said lady whose name is Sandra Regina was now named in his will to the surprise of everybody.
According to the source the late soccer star requested to meet with his two sons, speaking to them in the flesh for the first time on December 28, just one day before he died. It has now emerged that he gave a share of his multi-million-pound estate to the pair, after finally naming Sandra as one of his seven children in his will.
The lady’s children Octavio Felinto Neto and Gabriel Arantes do Nascimento said their mother’s dream had come true. The report also said Gabriel said: “I spoke to my aunts, and they said that our grandfather wanted to see us.”
“We were very excited, it was an opportunity we had been waiting for. Every family has fights and rows, ours is no different, but there are moments when union and love are more important than anything else. We are extremely happy.”
Sandra, who died in 2006 of cancer, was born after Pele had an affair with his cleaner, Anisia Machado. Ms Machado fought for years to get him to admit he was the father, but he refused to do so, even after a DNA test proved he was.
Sandra was given the right to use Pele’s surname, Nascimento, in 1996 after a five-year legal battle. When Pele died last month after a long battle with cancer he passed on an estate thought to be worth around £13million to her.
The global icon had three children from his first marriage, twins from his second, and two children, including Sandra, from affairs. He also recognised his other illegitimate daughter, Flavia Kurtz, who he had after an affair with journalist Lenita Kutz in 1968.
He is survived by his sister Maria and his 100-year-old mother Celeste, who was ‘unaware’ her son had died in the days after.