Born in Chicago Illinois to the family of Frank Funches and Darlene Funches on 6 September 1981, Dr. Siohvaughn Funches is a Christian counselor, Public Speaker, Author, and founder of A Woman’s Worth—a non-profit organization established with the goal to change lives through the Christian gospel. Dr. Funches is also the ex-wife of retired professional basketball player Dwyane Wade Jnr. It can be argued that this is what she is most known for. She is the mother of Zaya Wade and Zaire Blessing Dwyane. First, here are ten facts about Dr. Funches:
10 interesting facts about Siohvaughn Funches
- Siohvaughn Funches is a mother of two children whom she had with ex-husband Dwyane Wade
- She is a psychologist and has a master’s level certification as a professional counselor.
- Dr. Funches also has doctorates in Law, and in Theology.
- Siohvaughn is the founder of an NGO called A Woman’s Worth.
- The bulk of her income comes from her counseling work.
- She is currently worth about $100,000
- Dr. Funches is a published author. She has two books to her credit.
- Zaya Wade who is famed for transitioning into a woman is her second child.
- She owns her own alternative dispute resolution firm called The Mediation Matters Firm.
- Siohvaughn Funches is a devout Christian.
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Siohvaughn Funches early life and education
Dr. Funches was born into an unsettled home that made her early childhood challenging. When she was three years old, her parents got divorced. Also, her only sibling, Garrica LeAnna Woods passed away as a teenager. Siohvaughn had her High School education in her hometown at Harold L. High School, Oak Lawn. Soon after graduating from High School, she moved to Wisconsin to join her boyfriend (Dwyane) and also attend Marquette University where he too was undergoing his college education.
She later got admission into the University of Phoenix from where she graduated in 2009 with a Degree in Psychology. To be eligible to practice as a counselor, she pursued professional certification which she rightly earned at the Capella University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Siohvaughn Funches also later further joined the John Marshall Law School where she studied till 2014. She also has a doctorate in Theology.
Career
Dr. Funches is a well-known public speaker, and a professional domestic violence counselor practicing in Georgia, USA. She has authored two books namely: You Gotta Let God Finish! and The True Story for God’s Glory: The Life of Siohvaughn L. Funches-Wade
Siohvaughn Funches in 2016 founded and launched the A Woman’s Worth Foundation where she currently serves as president. The foundation’s main objective, amongst other things, is to transform lives through the Christian gospel and also to render support and counseling to women who are victims of domestic violence as well as other abuses.
In 2019, she launched a podcast called “Faith Comes By Hearing”
Personal life
Siohvaughn Funches was married to Basketball superstar Dwyane Wade Jnr. from 2002 to 2010 when the marriage was legally dissolved. Prior to the marriage, she and Dwyane were high school sweethearts who met while attending Harold L. Richards High School in Illinois, and she started dating him when she was 15 years old. She was in the 5th grade when they met. Dwyane who had a troubled life at home had been taken to live with his father, and eventually moved in with Siohvaughn’s family as a way to escape home.
After her high school graduation, she moved into a two-bedroom apartment with Dwayne in Marquette where he was attending college. On the 4th of February 2002 in their sophomore year, she was delivered of their first child Zaire, and three months later on the 18th of May, they got married. Siohvaughn insisted that Dwyane waited another year before entering the NBA draft or signing an NBA contract. This she did in order to ensure that the family got stabilized first before fame and money came in.
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Marriage to Dwyane Wade Jnr.
Dwyane entered the NBA draft in 2003 and ultimately Siohvaughn settled into life as a full-time wife in order to care for the home which according to her was her priority. On 29 May 2007, the couple welcomed their second child Zion Malachi Airimis Wade. By this time, it was reported that the pressure of fame had begun to take a toll on their marriage, and four months after the birth of their second child, Wade filed for divorce, stating the couple had irreconcilable differences.
An ugly legal battle that took years to resolve ensued, during which Siohvaughn alleged that Dwyane was a serial cheat and had left the family “destitute”, adding that he had also been physically abusive. She stated that in fact, he had beaten her while she was pregnant with their second child. Later, in an interview with Successful Ladies Live, Dr. Funches will express more about the abuse. Making the following statement:
“I woke up in the middle of the night. I was sick – obviously because of the pregnancy. And I noticed that [Dwyane] wasn’t in the house. And so I was calling him because it was like 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, and we went to bed together…
“He finally got back several hours later. I was very upset… [Dwyane] started cursing and calling me names. Telling me ‘Shut the F up’, ‘Women talk too much’ and ‘You should know your place’.
“Then it turned to physical violence. He picked me up, and threw me down. He threw me down so hard, that when my back hit the ottoman it broke into pieces. And my head and back hit the marble floor. “After that, I immediately got up and went to the phone, and went to call the police. He snatched the phone out of my hand and slammed it into my body, so hard the phone broke into pieces.”
Divorce, Settlement & Custody Battle
In 2011, Dr. Funches lost the custody battle of their kids to Dwayne; before then, she had been arrested twice for misconduct, accused of attempted abduction. She was however granted regular parenting time. It said in the Judge’s ruling: “The court finds that [Siohvaughn Wade] has embarked on an unstoppable and relentless pattern of conduct for over two years to alienate the children from their father, and lacks either the ability or the willingness to facilitate, let alone encourage, a close and continuing relationship between them.”
Dwyane later shared in his documentary how challenging it was to see his children during the legal battle. “I was having a hard time having a relationship with my kids, seeing my kids. A lot of times she would not bring them out and I would have to get the police involved to find her,” he expressed. In reference to his victory in the custody battle, he had this to say: “It became ugly and nasty. My emotions were all over the place because on one hand, you want to celebrate a victory, but on the other end, no one wins. There’s no winner in a custody battle.”
Siohvaughn received $5million in a divorce settlement in 2013 in addition to a monthly payment of $25,000, paid mortgage and maintenance and security requirements, and insurance from Dwyane. She also got the South Holland house in which they once lived as a family. The house has six bedrooms, a basketball court, and a swimming pool amongst many other notable features. In addition to these, Dr. Funches also kept four of their cars. In the same year, she underwent a mental evaluation as a result of a public demonstration where she declared she was homeless and living on the streets.
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Zion “Zaya” Malachi Airamis Wade
In 2019, a family photo posted by Gabriel Union (Dwyane’s wife) showed Zion Wade dressed seductively, wearing a crop top, leggings, lipstick, and acrylic nails. This sparked reactions across social media platforms about Dwyane’s parenting. Not too long after, Zion publicly came out as a transgender female with support from Dwyane, Gabriel, and Zaire. She also changed her name to Zaya Wade.
Siohvaughn who is a staunch Christian has been said to be in total disagreement with the development, and reportedly still refers to the child as Zion, rather than Zaya. She has also stuck to calling “him” her “son” as evident in a podcast she did in 2020 where she spoke about pregnancy and the birth of her second child, unequivocally referring to him as “son” when she said: “My second son, it was like a breeze. I might as well have been watching Netflix at the time.” She has however not directly made any public comment or statement about the issue. In fact, in what seemed to be a reunion of sorts with her kids last Christmas, she shared heartwarming photos with both Zaire and Zaya, expressing joy at being reunited with her sons.
Siohvaughn Funches net worth
Dr. Siohvaughn Funches makes a decent income from her various practices as an attorney, professional counselor, author, Christian counselor, and public speaker. She reportedly makes a yearly average of $40,000 just from her counseling work alone. As at the year 2020, she had a net worth of $100,000.
In her book The True Story for God’s Glory: The Life of Siohvaughn L. Funches-Wade, she stated that despite getting divorced, experiencing abuse, and losing the custody of her kids, the most difficult struggle of her experience being married to Dwyane was how she watched money eat away at her soul, and she developed excessive love for it. A pain she claimed to still struggle with. In her words, “I had never felt in my life true emptiness until my bank account was full.”
In conclusion, it is left to see if much is still to be heard from Dr. Siohvaughn Funches regarding her marriage and time with her ex-husband, as she is still trying to get the nondisparagement clause in her 2013 divorce settlement overturned by a judge.
Away from all of that, the 39-year-old mother of two seems to be living her best life, and we can only wish her more love and sunshine.
Divorce is usually hard.
Interesting