Personal Life
In 1971, two months after they met, Griffith married Mercedes (Sadie) Donastrog who was a member of the dance troupe, Prince Rupert and the Slave Girls at the time. Griffith adopted Donastorg's daughter.
After retiring from boxing, Griffith worked as a corrections officer at the Secaucus Juvenile Dentention Facility.
In 1992, Griffith was viciously beaten and almost killed on a New York City street, after leaving a gay bar near the Port Authority Bus Terminal. He was in the hospital for four months after the assault. It was not clear whether the violence was motivated by hatred of gays.
Griffith was quoted in Sports Illustrated as saying "I like men and women both. But I don't like that word: homosexual, gay or faggot. I don't know what I am. I love men and women the same, but if you ask me which is better... I like women."
Today, Griffith requires full time care and suffers from pugilistic dementia.
Read more about this topic: Emile Griffith
Famous quotes containing the words personal and/or life:
“Denouement to denouement, he took a personal pride in the
certain, certain way he lived his own, private life,
but nevertheless, they shut off his gas; nevertheless,
the bank foreclosed; nevertheless, the landlord called;
nevertheless, the radio broke,
And twelve o’clock arrived just once too often,”
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“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
—Bible: New Testament Jesus, in John, 15:13.
In Ulysses, James Joyce wrote, “Greater love than this ... no man hath that a man lay down his wife for his friend.”