After an almost five-month long custody battle, Miami Heat basketball player Dwyane Wade has been awarded sole custody of his two children, ages 3 and 9. The children are now living in their father’s home.
During the drawn out child custody battle between the NBA player and his ex-wife Siohvaughn Wade, each parent accused the other of being an unfit parent, but in the end, the courts sided with the children’s father.
For now the children are being given 30 days to fully adjust to their new home and school with just their father. After the month long period is up, the children’s mother will start to fly out to Florida to see the children every other weekend, and some pre-approved holidays. For now, it will be up to Dwayne Wade to pay his ex-wife’s airfare and travel expenses to see the two children.
According to an attorney for Dwyane Wade, before the custody decision, Siohvaughn Wade had purposely alienated the two children from their father, and was also a very manipulative person who was not always stable and occasionally violent. And while she had attempted to claim that Dwyane Wade had a work schedule that would make it impossible for him to properly care for his children, a judge disagreed and determined that his schedule actually keeps him in the area 70 percent of the time, and that he will also be able to be home when the children eat breakfast, and also when they kids return home from school.
This most recent decision also marks at least the third time the ex-spouses have been in court.
The former spouses’ relationship goes back to their high school years when the two started dating. In 2002 the two were married, and by 2007 the two were separated and starting a long bitter divorce.
In 2009 Siohvaughn Wade accused her ex of giving her a sexually transmitted disease, cheating on her and purposely abandoning his children. Following her accusations, Dwyane Wade filed a defamation lawsuit against her.
Source: Chicago Tribune, “NBA star Wade wins custody of children,” Kristen Mack and Becky Schilkerman, 14 March 2011
