EXCLUSIVE: Dwyane Wade blocks ex-wife's attempts to prevent their two sons from moving from Miami to Chicago where the NBA star now plays for the Bulls - after a years-long divorce battle where she claimed he beat her and gave her an STD

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Dwyane Wade has gotten permission to relocate his two oldest children to Chicago six months after moving from the Miami Heat to the Bulls in the latest installment of the never-ending court battle with his ex-wife.

A Florida judge signed off on the relocation, allowing the NBA star to immediately move his sons Zaire, 14, and Zion, 9, north where he's continuing his basketball career.

The 34-year-old shooting guard had to get permission from a judge as part of his custody agreement with ex-wife Siohvaughn Funches, who he was married to from 2002 to 2010.

The judge said that 'there is no good cause not to permit the relocation'. Wade's children will still travel to visit their mother in Atlanta, Georgia, for all timesharing scheduled in their initial custody agreement.

Dwyane Wade (pictured with wife Gabrielle Union, his children and nephew Dahveon Morris, left) has gotten permission to relocate his two oldest children, Zaire (right), 14, and Zion (center), 9, to Chicago six months after moving from the Miami Heat to the Bulls

The 34-year-old shooting guard had to get permission from a judge as part of his custody agreement with ex-wife Siohvaughn Funches - his childhood sweetheart who he married in 2002. Wade filed for divorce in 2007 the split was finalized in 2010. Above, the couple is pictured as teens, left, and in 2006, right

Wade played for the Miami Heat from 2003 to 2016, and in July signed a two-year contract with the Chicago Bulls worth $47million. Above he's pictured in an October 20 game against the Atlanta Hawks

When their custody agreement was formed in 2014, Wade was awarded sole custody, with Funchess, 35, given parenting time on alternating weekends in the children's town - then Miami. The kids also spend several holidays with their mother in Atlanta.

Per the custody agreement, for all timesharing taking place in the children's hometown - now being Chicago - Funches will have to travel to Illinois instead of Miami as she used to do.

Wade played for the Miami Heat from 2003 to 2016, and in July signed a two-year contract with the Chicago Bulls worth $47 million.

A month later on August 16, Wade,who's earned more than $152 million over his career, headed to court asking if he could move his children from Miami to Chicago.

On October 13, a judge ruled that the children could move states. Wade, who has been married to Gabrielle Union since 2014, also has a three-year-old son, Xavier, with friend Aja Metoyer and takes care of his 14-year-old nephew, Dahveon Morris.

Though Union and Wade do not have any children together, Union is an involved parent to the four kids.

She and Wade have been together since 2009, with a brief split in 2013. They met while co-hosting a Super Bowl party in 2007.

Funches, who recently said she became an 'arrogant diva' while trying to fit in with other NBA wives during her marriage to Wade,  were high school sweethearts and wed in 2002.

Wade filed for divorce in 2007 and the split was finalized in 2010.

The breakup dragged on in court for years, with Funches at one point being arrested for allegedly trying to abduct their kids.

Along with Zaire (left) and Zion (center), Wadealso has a three-year-old son, Xavier (on Wade's shoulders) and takes care of his 14-year-old nephew, Dahveon

Though Union and Wade do not have any children together, Union acts as a stepmother to the kids. The three oldest even helped Wade propose to Union, whose nickname is Nickie because her middle name is Monique

Throughout the court battle, Funches accused Wade of being a bad father, giving her an STD, and trying to alienate her from the kids.

He denied all of the allegations, and a second lawsuit spurred out of the STD allegation.

The former couple finally reached a financial settlement in 2013, six years after their split.

According to Wade's attorney, the NBA star provided a generous settlement to Funches - the divorce was settled at $5million.

A year later, a judge granted Wade sole 'care, custody and control' of the kids, who were immediately moved from Illinois - where Funches lived at the time - to MIami to be with their father.

The order allowed Funches to have parenting time on alternating weekends in Miami and the kids were to spend several holidays with her.

During the custody battle, Funches passed on concerns over Wade getting full custody, but in 2012 told DailyMail.com that her concerns were ignored.

The judge blasted Funches' actions in the custody order.

He said that she '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.'

Funchess told DailyMail.com in 2012  that the custody decision was based on Wade's 'celebrity, influence and money'.

'I think influence had a lot to do with it,' she said. 'Celebrity had a lot to do with it. Money had a lot to do with it.'

Wade and Funches (pictured with the boys above) have had an ongoing legal battle over the custody of their children for years.  Wade's children will still travel to visit their mother in Atlanta, Georgia, but he still has full custody of the boys

Throughout the court battle, Funches accused Wade (pictured together in 2006) of being a bad father, giving her an STD, and trying to alienate her from the kids

News of the ruling came through just hours after Siohvaughn had kissed her sons goodbye as they boarded a plane for their fortnightly trip to Miami.

'I promised them I would see them on Sunday; I learned from that not to make children promises,' she said at the time.

'When my lawyer called, I knew it was bad news but I begged him to tell me. I remember taking a moment to pause. I could break down at that moment or I could say, 'God help me'. There's no money that can buy that kind of strength.

'In the hours and weeks after, I cried and cried and I remember being scared when I'd see them again. Would they look different? Would their clothes still fit them? Would they still love me? I worried that they would think I wanted them to go away. There's nothing anyone could have done for me to say, 'Get me away from them'.'

Siohvaughn said the judge ordered she not contact the boys for a month as they settled in with their father – a ruling that horrified her.

'How devastating and traumatic for these two small boys,' she said, sobbing. 'Zion was a baby. To tell your baby that I'm going to see them in two days and that turns into two months. I can't describe what it felt like to speak to them after 30 days. They were crying so hard they couldn't even talk.'

Over the years, Funchess has accused Wade of leaving her homeless and broke.

She once sued Wade's lawyers and Chicago law enforcement, accusing them of conspiring to have her locked up for allegedly abducting her children.

The defendants denied any wrongdoing and the case was dismissed in their favor.

Union and Wade have been together since 2009, with a brief split in 2013. They met while co-hosting a Super Bowl party in 2007

The boys will now live with Wade and Union in Chicago full time, and travel back to their mother's home in Atlanta to visit

They met when Funchess was in fifth grade, and began dating when they were just 15 years old.

Wade quickly began treating her home, which she shared with her mother, as a place of solace from his drug-addicted mother and strict father.

'He was like nothing I see now,' she recounted. 'He was very humble, very shy.'

When Wade was just 20 and at college in Marquette, Wisconsin, Siohvaughn fell pregnant with their first son, Zaire. Even though his coaches suggested he be put forward for the draft in 2002, Siohvaughn pleaded with him to wait, she said.

'I'd practically begged him,' she said. 'We had just got married and had a child. I wanted time to settle, to build as a family. I asked him to choose between his family or him and he chose his family.'

The following year, he went on to play for the Miami Heat.

Funches claimed that as years went on, Wade's anger toward her escalated, and at one point she fell on to a marble table while pregnant.

In his book, A Father First: How My Life Became Bigger Than Basketball, Wade disputes her claims of physical violence.

She never made a complaint to police and charges have never been brought against her ex-husband for assaulting her.

Wade argues in his book that during their custody battle he felt it was his ex-wife that was doing her best to disobey court orders, including claims the children were ill or making the boys say things they didn't want to.

'Siohvaughn is a most loving, caring mother and the boys love and adore her just as they do me,' he wrote. 'But it had become clear to me... that she was going to disregard orders and throw up every and any excuse to keep me from seeing them.'

One thing they both agree on is that the children should be able to see both of their parents.

'Not seeing their mother could have a very negative effect,' Siohvaughn continued. 'We know what happened to Dwyane without his mom in his life and how he turned to my family.'

But she was happy when he came to her door, she said, and still resents how she lost him to basketball.

'The way it broke down was heartbreaking,' she said. 'It was a mourning to me rather than a divorce. This person I had loved was literally dead. I felt the way a wife feels when her husband dies. That person was literally gone.'

Earlier this year, Funches penned her own book about her relationship with Wade, titled The True Story for God's Glory, in which she doesn't call her ex-husband by his name even once.

In the autobiography published in June, she says that she became an 'arrogant diva' while trying to fit in with NBA wives during her marriage to Wade. 

She also repeats her allegations that Wade beat her and claims that an unnamed mistress of Wade would call her at 3am to brag about her rendezvous with the NBA player.