Personal Life
As stated in his autobiography Tangled Ropes, Graham and his wife Valerie were never able to have children due to his massive steroid abuse rendering him sterile. He does, however, have two children from a previous marriage: a son named Joey (born in 1975) and a daughter named Capella (born in 1972).
Graham received a liver transplant in 2002 from twenty six year-old donor Katie Gillroy, who died in a car crash, and said he would not be alive today without the transplant. On March 12, 2004, only a day before being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, Graham was hospitalized due to a severely prolapsed rectum.
On November 18, 2005, Graham presided over the funeral service for wrestler Eddie Guerrero.
Graham was again hospitalized, this time on May 24, 2006, due to a bowel obstruction from an earlier surgery.
In July 2010, Graham was hospitalized at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona due to liver problems. Afterwards, it was announced he had an enlarged spleen and would probably have one year left to live without another liver transplant.
On December 2, 2010, Graham issued a statement regarding his last wrestling-related appearance, health issues and funeral ceremony. Graham stated that he reserved a burial spot at the Green Acres cemetery in Scottsdale, Arizona, next to Eddie Guerrero. On March 31, 2011, The Phoenix New Times reported that Graham's doctor, Hector Rodriguez-Luna, acknowledged that Graham's advanced fibrosis may be early cirrhosis and that he could live for two more years if he takes Interferon-a drug to help slow his Hepatitis C- at a good pace and stays in shape. On April 2011, Billy Graham stated he wanted out of the WWE Hall of Fame stating "For the WWE to induct into their Hall of Fame, Abdullah The Butcher, who has never wrestled one match under a WWE contract, is bordering on blasphemy. I am demanding that this company remove my name from their index of Hall of Fame wrestlers. It is a shameless organization to induct a bloodthirsty animal such as Abdullah The Butcher into their worthless and embarrassing Hall of Fame and I want the name of Superstar Billy Graham to be no part of it. The WWE and their Hall of Fame is disgustingly embarrassing, I want out." (Graham's outrage was due to the longstanding accusations that Abdullah was infecting wrestlers with Hepatitis C through sharing a blade and/or cutting wrestlers without their knowledge.) Abdullah responded, mentioning his previous friendship with Graham and questioning his outburst. Despite these demands, Billy Graham's name has not been removed from the Hall of Fame section on WWE's main website. Graham has expressed interest in making a return to wrestling if he is offered a contract with HFW.
Read more about this topic: Billy Graham (wrestler)
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