Yusef Salaam Biography

Yusef Salaam Personal Life; Married, Wife, And Children

Yusef Salaam lived quite an interesting and tragic personal life that everyone would want to know about. Let's scroll through his life to learn about the incident he went through and also find out about his relationship status!

Yusef Salaam Married Life and Children

Yusef Salaam is happily married to his wife, Sanovia Guillory. Moreover, the husband & wife are together for over a decade, and it seems there are no issues in their relationship so far.

Yusef Salaam with his beautiful wife, Sanovia Guillory.

Yusef tied a knot in front of his close friends and family members, on mid-2007. The couple has ten children, including the three from Yusef's first marriage.

Yusef Salaam is a father to his ten children.

The motivational speaker isn't Yusef's only wife as he was previously married to a mysterious lady, in 1997. Salaam and his ex-wife gave birth to three children.  Moreover, the marriage didn't last long as they had conflicts and relationship issues all along. The ex-couple finally ended their marriage soon.

Yusef Salaam Convicted

Yusef had to go through a harsh stage of his life when he was just 15. In 1989, Yusef and other four teenagers were convicted for rape and assault on a 28-year-old Trisha Meili. The five convicted young kids back then were; 15-year-old Yusef and Antron McCray, 14-year-old Raymond Santana and Kevin Richardson, and a 16-year-old Korey Wise.

Yusef Salaam and the other four wrongly convicted of Central Park incident. SOURCE: NY Daily News

The case didn't go easy as the four kids except for Korey, were taken to custody. Later, Korey supported his friend, Yusef, and got himself into trouble as the police began questioning him too. Moreover, he suffered from hearing and learning disabilities.

Out of all five, Wise received the bitter punishment and served 13 years in an adult prison. On the other hand, the other four served around 6 to 7 years in prison. Although none of the evidence connected them to the rape scene, they were still convicted of related assault and some other charges.

Korey Wise served the harsh punishment out out the five. SOURCE: Oxygen

The crime scene took place between 9 to 10 pm, committed by a group of 30-32 teenagers. Moreover, police found Meili's body after 1:30 am and was found naked, tied, and covered in mud and blood. The police tried to capture each of them but took just over 14 teenagers to custody. Except five, other teenagers were pleaded guilty to reduced charges and also received lesser sentences.

The each of five convicted, served their sentence beginning from 1990; however, the real murderer was identified in 2001 and went by the name, Matias Reyes. Besides, the five got their convictions vacated the same year.

Matias Reyes; rapist and murderer, solely involved in Trisha Meili rape. SOURCE: NY Daily News

What's interesting was, now-president Donald Trump called out to execute the five, back in the days. He took it to newspaper ads and called for the death penalty on these young boys. He said,

"They admitted they were guilty. The police doing the original investigation say they were guilty. The fact that that case was settled with so much evidence against them is outrageous. And the woman, so badly injured, will never be the same."

Yusef and other four sued New York City in 2003, for Malicious prosecution, racial discrimination as well as emotional distress. After over a decade, in 2014, the city settled for $41 million plaintiffs. Also, the five wrongly convicted filed a suit against the city for additional damage, and received $3.9 million in 2016 and settled the case.

Trisha is now 59-year-old who is sound and healthy at the moment but certainly has some residual and physical effects from the incident. Moreover, she barely remembers anything from the evening, which in a way sounds good not to have nightmares. But also sadly she couldn't remember the guy who could've cleared up controversies about the case. Have a look at the video where she talked about it in 2009!

After the five got out of the jail and were enjoying a decent life, Yusef opened up about how he regrets getting Wise into the situation. It was when he saw in the movie, "When They See Us", what kind of things Wise had to deal with during the imprisonment, he regretted. Yusef said,

"I immediately realized that we were in paradise compared to the hell that Wise was in. His was unrelenting. I went to jail and I was able to get a college degree. He never got an opportunity to breathe, to meditate, to just say, ‘Phew, man, that was really crazy today. Let me kick my feet up a little bit and read this magazine."

On the other hand, Wise doesn't think it of that way as he says, they were having fun back then and unfortunately got into trouble. Also, he opens up; he doesn't have any harsh feeling about him.

Yusef Salaam Career, Salary, And Net Worth

With an interesting and inspiring career as a motivational speaker, Yusef Salaam must definitely make some decent money regardless of his motivating motive. Let's have a peek at his net worth and earning!

Yusef Salaam Net Worth and Salary

Salaam accumulates a net worth of around $2 million to $2.5 million. He makes most of his earning from his work as a motivational speaker. Besides, he earned quite a handsome money from the settlement of The Central Park Five incident, where he was wrongly convicted.

Check out the video, where Yusef talks about himself and The Marshall Project, which is a non-profit, online journalism company!

The average salary of a motivational speaker ranges from $27,000 to $131,000 a year. Moreover, it depends on the popularity and the experience of the personality. Also, Yusef appears in around ten documentaries from 1992 to 2019. Besides, Yusef made $650,000 from the settlement the five wrongly convicted received.

Yusef Salaam Body Measurements

African-American motivational speaker, Yusef Salaam. SOURCE: Variety

• Age: 45 years old as of 2019
• Height: 5'10" or 1.78 meters
• Hair color: Black
• Eye color: Brown

Quick Facts: Yusef Salaam

• Yusef is a motivational speaker and activist.
• He features in a few series including When They See Us, which is a documentary of the real-life incident on his life.
• He gave motivational speeches on Race & Ethnicity in American Higher Education and also speech at Amherst College.
• Ava DuVernay and Ken Burns cover his real-life story in a movie.
• He received a lifetime achievement award from the former president, Barack Obama, back in 2016.

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