Exclusive: We Got Some Knockout Parenting Tips From Boxing Legend Sugar Ray Leonard

Alyssa K. Davis and Giovana Gelhoren
·2 min read
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Boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard, 66, has delivered many a knockout in his time — and now he’s sharing some knockout parenting tips exclusively with SheKnows. We caught up with Sugar Ray at the 2022 Footwear News Achievement Awards and asked him for his best parenting advice, and he didn’t disappoint.

The father of four — sons Ray Charles Jr., 48, Jarrel, 38, Daniel, 21, and daughter Camille, 25 — shared that parenthood comes with many surprises. “It’s, you know, it’s a beautiful thing; it’s tough,” he said. “You have to be consistent. And you have to be thankful [for] the health of your kids.”

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Leonard explained that he feels he “learned the hard way” as a parent, referring to the effects of his drug use and the domestic abuse he inflicted on his first wife, which he publically admitted to and apologized for in the 1990s, on his two sons at the time. But today, the boxer, who has been sober since 2006, is “totally satisfied” with how things played out for his family.

The dad of four is also now a granddad of six, and he admittedly misses the chaos of a house full of little ones. Leonard shared with Wealthsimple Magazine in 2019, “What do they call that when you say you’re home by yourself? Just you and the wife? Empty nesters, that’s what we’re becoming. So now we’re looking to downsize the house, our lives, simplify everything. I love where I’m living but it’s just too lonely here without my kids. I miss that screaming — you know, that screaming and that fighting and that yelling? I miss all that.”

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As far as tips for other parents from his learned wisdom, the legend had some very on-brand words of encouragement: “Just hang in there; be a fighter, hang in there, and get off them knockdowns in life.”

These Hollywood grandparents aren’t baking cookies or playing Bingo — they’re in their prime of life.

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