Miya Ali grew up not knowing her father was one of the most famous men in the world. She is the daughter of boxing legend Muhammad Ali and Patricia Harvell, born in January 1972 while Ali was still married to his second wife, making her the first of Ali’s children born outside of marriage.
She has since built a career in hospitality and corporate sales, become a public advocate for dyslexia awareness with a specific, dated event to her name, and written her own memoir about her relationship with her father.
Miya Ali Biography
She was born January 25, 1972, in the United States, to Muhammad Ali and Patricia Harvell. Ali and Harvell were involved in a relationship in the early 1970s while Ali was still married to his second wife, Khalilah, then known as Belinda Boyd, an affair that made headlines at the time.
Harvell has kept an almost entirely private life since, never publicly discussing her profession or personal history beyond her connection to Ali, and the two separated not long after Miya’s birth. Harvell raised Miya largely on her own.
Miya Ali is Patricia Harvell’s only child with Muhammad Ali. Miya has said publicly that she did not grow up aware of just how famous her father actually was.
She has spoken openly about dealing with dyslexia and bullying growing up, experiences that shaped both her outlook and, later, her advocacy work.
She eventually moved to Michigan to live with her father while attending college, a period that significantly strengthened their relationship during her young adult years. She holds a degree in marketing from Andrews University.
Career
Miya Ali built a long career primarily in hospitality and corporate sales. She landed her first management position at IDT Corporation in 1999, working there for several years before moving to Florentine Gardens’ The Estate as catering sales manager from 2004 to 2006.
She went on to work as an account manager at Master Food Brokers, then as sales manager at the Park Ridge Marriott in New Jersey starting in 2008, followed by a similar role at the Room Mate Grace Hotel in New York City.
Her career continued through additional hospitality roles, including manager at World Venture Marketing Inc., senior sales manager at Isla Bella Beach Resort and Spa in the Florida Keys, corporate group sales manager at ink48, a Kimpton hotel, director of group sales at Hersha Hospitality Management, and a role with W Hotels Times Square.
She now works as a brand ambassador for her sister Laila Ali’s lifestyle brand, Laila Ali Lifestyle.
Advocacy and Public Life
Miya Ali’s dyslexia advocacy is not a vague, general interest; it traces to a specific public event.
On October 2, 2017, she joined New York State Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon of Brooklyn, along with local officials, students, parents and administrators from the Mary McDowell Friends School, to help kick off the first-ever Dyslexia Diagnosis Day in Brooklyn, New York.
The day, which marks the start of Dyslexia Awareness Month each October, was founded by actor, activist and author Ameer Baraka, who was not diagnosed with dyslexia himself until age 23, while incarcerated.
Miya spoke directly about her own experience with dyslexia at the event, which focused on pushing schools and educational institutions to screen children for dyslexia as early as kindergarten, and coincided with New York legislation, sponsored by Simon and State Senator Marty Golden, directing the state’s Department of Education to allow schools to name specific learning disorders like dyslexia in students’ Individualized Education Plans so children could receive targeted, language based interventions.
Beyond that advocacy work, Miya appeared in I Am Ali, a 2014 documentary directed by Clare Lewins that told her father’s life story using his own personal audio recordings from the 1970s alongside interviews with family, friends and figures from professional boxing, including George Foreman, Jim Brown and Mike Tyson.
The film built its structure around Ali’s decision to take one final professional fight in 1981, using his own private tapes, and Miya’s participation places her among the family members whose recollections helped shape that portrait of her father as both a boxer and a private man.
She also wrote her own memoir, Muhammad Ali: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Forgiveness, a book built around her personal relationship with her father rather than a general account of his boxing career, and has spoken at events including the Marchon Film Festival about growing up as his daughter.
She has recalled her father’s generosity and his particular soft spot for children, and has cited one of his own reflections on life, that the price paid to enter paradise is the sum of one’s deeds on earth, as something that has stayed with her.
Like her father, she has said she finds real fulfillment in social work centered on helping the homeless and other underprivileged communities.
Miya Ali is a single mother of one child and has kept the identity of her child’s father private. She has also worked as a notary signing agent alongside her hospitality career.
Muhammad Ali’s Daughter
Muhammad Ali had nine children across four marriages and two other relationships. With his second wife, Khalilah, formerly Belinda Boyd, he had four children: Maryum, born 1968; twin daughters Jamillah and Rasheda, born 1970; and Muhammad Ali Jr., born 1972.
Outside of that marriage, he had two daughters born out of wedlock, Miya, born to Patricia Harvell in 1972, and Khaliah, born to Wanda Bolton in 1974.
With his third wife, Veronica Porche, he had two daughters, Hana, born in 1976, and Laila, born in 1977, the boxer who went on to her own professional career.
With his fourth wife, Yolanda Lonnie Williams, he adopted a son, Asaad Amin, in 1986. That makes Miya one of nine children total, with eight siblings across her father’s other relationships and marriages.
Muhammad Ali himself first rose to fame as Cassius Clay, becoming a professional boxer in 1960 and winning the heavyweight title three times over a career defined by both his in-ring dominance and his outspoken personality outside of it.
He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in the 1980s and spent his later years managing its effects, remaining a public figure through appearances including lighting the Olympic torch at the 1996 Atlanta Games and serving as flag bearer during the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony, a moment Miya has said gave her a real sense of her father’s global significance.
He died June 3, 2016, in a Phoenix hospital at age 74 following respiratory complications related to his Parkinson’s disease.
Miya Ali’s Net Worth
Miya Ali’s net worth is estimated at $1 million, built from her decades-long career in hospitality and corporate sales along with her current work as a brand ambassador.
However, Muhammad Ali’s estimated net worth at the time of his death in 2016 was $80 million.
