Mike Tyson

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Mike Tyson : biography

June 30, 1966 –

In October 2012, Tyson launched the Mike Tyson Cares Foundation. The mission of the Mike Tyson Cares Foundation is to “give kids a fighting chance” by providing innovative centers that provide for the comprehensive needs of kids from broken homes.

Personal life

Tyson has been legally married three times and has eight children with several different women.

His first marriage was to actress Robin Givens, from February 7, 1988 to February 14, 1989. Givens was known for her work on the sitcom Head of the Class. Tyson’s marriage to Givens was especially tumultuous, with allegations of violence, spousal abuse and mental instability on Tyson’s part. Matters came to a head when Tyson and Givens gave a joint interview with Barbara Walters on the ABC TV newsmagazine show 20/20 in September 1988, in which Givens described life with Tyson as "torture, pure hell, worse than anything I could possibly imagine.", AP via New York Times, 1988-09-30. Retrieved April 24, 2007. Givens also described Tyson as "manic depressive" on national television while Tyson looked on with an intent and calm expression. A month later, Givens announced that she was seeking a divorce from the allegedly abusive Tyson. They had no children but she claims to have had a miscarriage; Tyson claims she was never pregnant and only used that to get him to marry her. During their marriage, the couple lived in a mansion in Bernardsville, New Jersey.Gross, Ken. , People, October 17, 1988. Retrieved March 21, 2011. "The food lies untouched. The only sounds across the breakfast table in the Bernardsville, N.J., mansion are the loud silences of words being swallowed.Finally, Robin Givens, 24, star of the ABC-TV sitcom Head of the Class, pushes herself away from the table and announces, ‘I have to pack.’ ‘Me, too,’ says her husband, Mike Tyson, 22, the world heavyweight boxing champion. Suddenly the Sunday morning atmosphere is tense and full of menace."via Associated Press. , USA Today, June 12, 2005. Retrieved March 21, 2011. "Oct. 2, 1988 – Police go to Tyson’s Bernardsville, N.J., home after he hurls furniture out the window and forces Givens and her mother to flee the house."

His second marriage was to Monica Turner from April 19, 1997 to January 14, 2003. At the time of the divorce filing, Turner worked as a pediatric resident at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington DC., The Smoking Gun. Retrieved March 30, 2007. She is the sister of Michael Steele, the former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland and former Republican National Committee Chairman. Turner filed for divorce from Tyson in January 2002, claiming that he committed adultery during their five-year marriage, an act that "has neither been forgiven nor condoned." The couple had two children, Rayna and Amir.

On May 25, 2009, Tyson’s 4-year-old daughter Exodus was found by her 7-year-old brother Miguel, unconscious and tangled in a cord, dangling from an exercise treadmill. The child’s mother untangled her, administered CPR and called for medical attention. Exodus was listed in "extremely critical condition" and was on life support at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix. She died of her injuries on May 26, 2009.

Eleven days after his daughter’s death, Tyson wed for the third time, to long-time girlfriend Lakiha "Kiki" Spicer, age 32, exchanging vows on Saturday, June 6, 2009, in a short, private ceremony at the La Bella Wedding Chapel at the Las Vegas Hilton. Spicer was a resident of nearby suburban Henderson, Nevada. County marriage records in Las Vegas show the couple got a marriage license 30 minutes before their ceremony. Spicer is the mother of Tyson’s daughter Milan and son Morocco. His other children include Mikey (born 1990), Miguel (born 2002) and D’Amato (born 1990). He has a total of eight children including the deceased Exodus.

Tyson has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. While on the American talk show The View in early May 2010, Tyson revealed that he is now forced to live paycheck to paycheck.. Contactmusic.com. Retrieved on 2011-11-25. He went on to say: "I’m totally destitute and broke. But I have an awesome life, I have an awesome wife who cares about me. I’m totally broke. I had a lot of fun. It (losing his money) just happened. I’m very grateful. I don’t deserve to have the wife that I have; I don’t deserve the kids that I have, but I do, and I’m very grateful."