Andrea Skeete: Age, Bio, George Foreman Wife and Family

Andrea Skeete is an American woman born in 1953, best known as the fourth wife of two-time world heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman. She married George Foreman on April 28, 1982, and the couple divorced on February 4, 1985. Now approximately 72 years old, she is the mother of two of Foreman’s children: Freeda Foreman, a professional boxer who died by suicide in March 2019 at the age of 42, and George Foreman III, nicknamed “Monk,” a former professional boxer and co-founder of the EverybodyFights gym chain. Andrea has maintained almost complete personal privacy since her divorce and has never given a public interview. George Foreman died on March 21, 2025, at the age of 76.

Quick Bio

Who is Andrea Skeete?

Andrea Skeete is an American woman who entered public awareness as the fourth wife of George Foreman, the Olympic gold medallist, two-time world heavyweight boxing champion, and entrepreneur whose career spanned from 1967 to 1997 and whose name became synonymous with the George Foreman Grill, which sold more than 100 million units worldwide. She is the mother of two of his twelve children, and her decades of maintained privacy contrast sharply with the public profiles of both her former husband and their children.

Her public profile exists in direct proportion to George Foreman’s extraordinary fame, and in inverse proportion to her own desire for visibility. She has never given an interview, held no public-facing career after her divorce in 1985, and has made no public statements about her former marriage, her family, or her subsequent life. What is known about her comes from George Foreman’s own accounts, court records, and the biographical record assembled around the Foreman family in general. Other profiles of women who stood alongside major sporting figures during formative periods in their careers appear across xxbrits.uk’s latest coverage.

The family connection that generates the most sustained public interest in Andrea is her son George Foreman III, whose boxing career, EverybodyFights gym empire, and subsequent Craft Boxing Club venture have made him a public figure in his own right, and her daughter Freeda Foreman, whose death by suicide in March 2019 at the age of 42 was widely reported and mourned across the boxing world and beyond.

Early Life and Background

Childhood and Family

Andrea Skeete was born in 1953 in the United States. No verified information about her birthplace, parents, siblings, or childhood has been publicly confirmed. Her background before meeting George Foreman in the mid-1970s is entirely undocumented in the public record.

Some published sources note a claim that she may have been born in Jamaica before moving to the United States, but this has not been confirmed from any primary source. The absence of biographical detail about her early life reflects both her own preference for privacy and the reality that very little documentation of her pre-Foreman life was ever collected.

George Foreman was born on January 10, 1949, in Marshall, Texas, and grew up in the Fifth Ward community of Houston, Texas, one of America’s most disadvantaged urban environments. His journey from street crime and early school dropout to Olympic champion and world heavyweight title holder is among the most dramatic self-reinvention stories in American sports history. Andrea entered his life during the period following his first retirement from boxing in 1977 and his conversion to evangelical Christianity, when Foreman was reinventing himself as a preacher and community figure in Houston.

Education and Early Career

Andrea Skeete’s educational background has not been publicly confirmed. Before her marriage to George Foreman, she worked as his executive assistant and cook, a professional role that placed her in close daily proximity to his domestic and administrative life from around 1976 onward.

Her role as executive assistant to a former world heavyweight champion who had retired to pursue Christian ministry and community work in Houston, Texas, was a substantive professional position. It required organisational skill, discretion, and the ability to manage both logistical responsibilities and the demands of working for a major public figure. Her cooking for Foreman additionally reflects a domestic closeness that preceded and underpinned the romantic relationship that developed over several years before their marriage.

Marriage to George Foreman

Andrea Skeete and George Foreman married on April 28, 1982, in a ceremony that took place as Foreman was in the middle of his first boxing comeback, three years into his return to training after his 1977 retirement. She was approximately 29 years old at the time of the wedding and Foreman was 33.

Their marriage coincided with one of the more complex periods in Foreman’s personal history. He had been previously married three times: to Adrienne Calhoun from 1971 to 1974, to Cynthia Lewis from 1977 to 1979, and to Sharon Goodson from 1981 to 1982. His marriage to Andrea began immediately after his divorce from Sharon Goodson.

George Foreman’s account in his own autobiography describes a period of significant marital complexity during his marriages of the late 1970s and early 1980s. He wrote about Andrea in the context of the pregnancy with their second child, describing her disappearing after sharing the pregnancy news and then returning with a paternity lawsuit against him. Published sources have noted this account without independent verification. The specifics of the relationship’s breakdown remain contested by the absence of any public statement from Andrea herself.

During their marriage, Andrea worked as both his executive assistant and as a manager of their household. Her role gave her a direct operational function within Foreman’s professional and domestic life, making her contribution more substantial than the purely social one that the “celebrity wife” framing often implies. The marriage ended formally on February 4, 1985, after approximately three years. Neither party has publicly stated the specific reasons for the divorce. Stories of other women who supported famous athletes through pivotal periods in their careers appear across xxbrits voices.

Legal History: Paternity and Divorce

According to George Foreman’s published autobiography, Andrea Skeete filed a paternity suit against him during the period of their marriage, a legal dispute that Foreman described as personally difficult. The suit related to the pregnancy that produced George Foreman III.

The facts of the paternity proceedings and their resolution are not publicly documented beyond Foreman’s own account. Published sources report that Andrea received a divorce settlement of approximately $5 million following the dissolution of the marriage in 1985, and was awarded custody of their two children. The combination of a substantial settlement and sole custody reflected the legal outcome of their proceedings, but neither party made detailed public statements about the terms.

After the divorce, Andrea maintained custody of Freeda and George III and raised them independently. George Foreman married for the fifth and final time in 1985, taking Mary Joan Martelly as his wife, a marriage that lasted until his death in March 2025.

Children

Freeda Foreman (1976 to 2019)

Freeda Foreman was born on October 16, 1976, and was raised by Andrea as her daughter. Freeda followed her father’s example and pursued a professional boxing career beginning in 2000, compiling a record of 5 wins and 1 loss before retiring in 2001 to focus on her family and work as a boxing promoter.

Freeda was married and the mother of two children and grandmother to three grandchildren at the time of her death. She died in March 2019 at her home in Texas at the age of 42. Her death was ruled an apparent suicide. George Foreman publicly mourned her death, and his subsequent interviews about faith and resilience often referenced Freeda’s passing as the most painful personal experience of his later years.

Freeda’s decision to enter professional boxing was a direct engagement with her father’s legacy, making her one of the few women in American boxing history to take on the sport as the daughter of a world heavyweight champion. Her brief but notable career, her family, and her tragic death at 42 constitute a major strand of the Foreman family story that connects directly back to Andrea as her mother.

George Foreman III “Monk” (born January 23, 1983)

George Foreman III, nicknamed “Monk,” was born on January 23, 1983, during his parents’ marriage. He pursued a professional boxing career between 2009 and 2012, compiling an undefeated 16-0 record with 15 knockout victories, then retired from competitive boxing to build a career in entrepreneurship.

After boxing, George III founded EverybodyFights, a luxury boxing and fitness gym concept, with a partner in Boston in 2013. The company expanded nationally, growing to nearly two dozen locations across the United States including New York City, Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia. George III left EverybodyFights in 2020 and launched a new venture, Craft Boxing Club, in Los Angeles in 2021, offering in-person and online boxing training and a coaching certification programme through Craft Boxing Academy.

The nickname “Monk” traces back to George Foreman Sr.’s own childhood, when his siblings called him “Monkey” as a form of teasing that became an enduring street name. By giving his son the same nickname, George Foreman carried forward a piece of his own personal history. George III has explained this publicly on television. His success in both professional boxing and entrepreneurship represents the most visible positive legacy of Andrea Skeete’s role as a parent, acknowledged in multiple contexts where George III has credited his mother’s influence on his discipline and independence. Profiles of other children of major athletic figures who built their own significant careers are covered at Henry Elkind and elsewhere on this site.

Life After Divorce

Following her 1985 divorce from George Foreman, Andrea Skeete rebuilt her life in complete privacy, reportedly entering the real estate business and focusing on raising her children without public attention.

Some published sources note a second marriage to a man identified as Anthony W. Mapp, though details of this relationship have not been confirmed from any primary source and the duration or outcome of that marriage is not publicly known. Andrea has not confirmed or denied these reports.

Her decision to maintain total privacy across four decades, through her former husband’s extraordinary commercial success with the George Foreman Grill, through the deaths of loved ones, and through the ongoing public careers of her children, represents one of the most sustained examples of voluntary exit from celebrity proximity in American public life. George Foreman sold the commercial rights to his grill for $138 million in 1999, a transaction that made him one of the wealthiest former athletes in American history. None of that commercial arc had any documented public impact on Andrea’s life or choices.

George Foreman: Legacy and Death

George Edward Foreman, born January 10, 1949, died on March 21, 2025, at the age of 76, bringing to a close one of the most remarkable and multifaceted careers in American sporting history.

Foreman won an Olympic gold medal at the 1968 Mexico City Games, claimed the undisputed world heavyweight championship in 1973 by knocking out Joe Frazier in two rounds, lost the title to Muhammad Ali in the “Rumble in the Jungle” in Kinshasa in 1974, retired in 1977 after a loss to Jimmy Young, converted to evangelical Christianity, staged one of sport’s most celebrated comebacks, won the WBA and IBF heavyweight titles in 1994 at the age of 45 by knocking out Michael Moorer to become the oldest heavyweight champion in history, and then built a commercial empire through the George Foreman Grill that earned him more money than his entire boxing career combined. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame and the World Boxing Hall of Fame. He had twelve children across five marriages and multiple relationships, and named all five of his sons George Edward Foreman.

His fourth marriage, to Andrea Skeete, produced two of those twelve children. Their divorce in 1985 predated all of his most significant commercial and personal achievements, meaning Andrea’s relationship with Foreman occurred during a transitional, uncertain period of his life rather than at its peak.

Achievements and Milestones

Andrea Skeete’s biographical milestones are defined by the roles of professional assistant, wife, mother, and private individual rather than by public achievements in any conventional sense.

• Worked as George Foreman’s executive assistant and cook from approximately 1976, providing professional and domestic support during his years as a preacher and community leader in Houston, Texas.
• Married George Foreman on April 28, 1982, in a union that coincided with his first boxing comeback and his continued work as an evangelical minister.
• Gave birth to George Foreman III “Monk” on January 23, 1983, and raised him alongside Freeda Foreman following the couple’s divorce in 1985.
• Secured a reported $5 million divorce settlement in 1985 and sole custody of both children, providing the financial foundation for her independent life after the marriage.
• Raised two children who both pursued professional boxing careers and established independent public profiles: Freeda as a boxer and promoter, George III as a boxer, gym founder, and entrepreneur.
• Maintained total personal privacy for more than four decades following her divorce, declining to leverage her connection to one of the most commercially successful athletes in American history.

Interesting Facts About Andrea Skeete

Andrea Skeete’s professional relationship with George Foreman began as his executive assistant, meaning she was employed by him before their romantic relationship developed, a context that adds a specific professional dimension to a story most sources reduce to the celebrity wife framing.

• Both of Andrea’s children by George Foreman became professional boxers, making her the only one of his wives or partners to produce two boxing offspring: Freeda with her 5-1 professional record, and George III with his 16-0 professional record.
• George Foreman III’s nickname “Monk” derives from George Foreman Sr.’s own childhood nickname “Monkey,” a piece of family history that George III has explained publicly as having been handed down with intentional emotional significance.
• Freeda Foreman, Andrea’s daughter, became one of the few women in American boxing history to enter the professional ring as the daughter of a world heavyweight champion, a distinction that made her career particularly notable regardless of its brevity.
• The reported $5 million divorce settlement Andrea received in 1985 represents a very significant sum for the period, reflecting the legal outcome of proceedings that included the paternity dispute Foreman described in his autobiography.
• George Foreman subsequently named all five of his sons with Mary Joan Martelly “George Edward Foreman,” a practice he began with George III, his son with Andrea, extending a naming tradition that started with the marriage that Andrea and George shared.
• George Foreman died on March 21, 2025, at the age of 76, bringing formal closure to the public narrative of one of boxing’s most celebrated figures, and leaving Andrea as the last surviving party from their four-decade-old marriage and divorce.