On their second ever date, Tyson Fury took the then Paris Mulroy – he 17, she just 16 – to a crowded sports bar to watch a boxing match. It left her distinctly underwhelmed.
‘I thought, “What a weird way to date a woman – we’re watching these two men punch lumps out of each other”,’ she recalls.
That same night, however – in that rather unromantic pub – the teenage Tyson also made Paris a promise.
‘He told me he was going to be a boxer,’ she remembers, smiling. ‘And not just a boxer – the heavyweight champion of the world. I remember I looked at him and thought, “That’s nice.” Not in a bad way – I just presumed it was a hobby that would fade away.’
History, of course, has robustly proven that wrong: as we now know, Tyson Fury did not just become world heavyweight champion, but one of the defining fighters of his generation, a towering 6ft 9in figure with an – until recently – undefeated record and whose affectionate moniker, the ‘Gypsy King’, is as familiar to those with no interest in the sport as it is to its devotees.
Paris, now 36, has been there for all of it – the victories, the retirements and the volte faces that followed, not to mention Tyson’s battles with addiction and mental health that have on occasion left him struggling to see the point of living at all.
There’s also the seven children (five under nine) and, latterly, a fly-on-the-wall Netflix series, At Home with the Furys, returning for a second series after the first – which was released in August 2023 and showed Tyson navigating family life post-retirement – proved a ratings hit.
It’s safe to say quite a lot has happened since: there’s the arrival of seventh child Nico, now two, a wounding first loss in a headline fight, retirement (again) and a U-turn (again) which means Fury is set to make yet another comeback on April 11 in an eagerly anticipated fight against Russian fighter Arslanbek Makhmudov.
Paris was sceptical that Tyson would become a professional boxer when they first met
Paris, now 36, has been there for all of it – the victories, the retirements and the volte faces that followed, not to mention Tyson’s battles with addiction and mental health
The Furys with six of their seven children as part of a promotion for the Netflix series At Home With The Furys
The entire family has also upped sticks, relocating from Morecambe, home for well over a decade, to a sprawling isolated pile on the Isle of Man – a move that happened with barely a moment’s notice not long before Christmas.
‘This has gone on for years, the thought process of moving away,’ says Paris, in her first solo newspaper interview, chatting from the vast but comfortable living room of her new home while her husband is thousands of miles away in Thailand, in a two-month training camp ahead of his fight.
‘And then it was, “Boom, we’re going.” That’s Tyson all over. But you know, we are travellers by heritage, so it’s not as strange to us as it may be to others.’
Because of course, before the titles, headlines and television crews, there was once a teenage girl and a ‘slightly shy-looking’ boy from two travelling families who could not have remotely envisaged what the future might hold.
The couple first met at a family wedding when Paris was 15 and her husband-to-be 16. ‘He was already tall then, but his shoulders were rounded like he was trying to hide it,’ she remembers of that first awkward encounter.
They bumped into each other again at a local cafe. ‘I remember we skitted each other about what we were wearing’ – and then once more, at her 16th birthday party. ‘That was the point,’ she says. ‘I knew I liked him instantly. And the feeling was mutual.’
They married two years later, in 2008, in Paris’s hometown of Doncaster, then just another two young teenagers in love. ‘It didn’t matter where we were going to end up,’ she recalls now. ‘We always said we’d happily live in a cardboard box, as long as we were together.’ In the event, it wasn’t quite a box: their first home was a 24ft trailer, parked in the yard of her mother’s house, in keeping with Traveller tradition.
‘I thought it was a palace on wheels,’ she says, with a grin. ‘I loved it.’ After their honeymoon, they moved on to land owned by Fury’s uncle in Morecambe – temporarily, they thought. ‘It was meant to be a couple of weeks, but we never left,’ she says. ‘Then two or three years later, we bought our first home.’
By then, their eldest daughter Venezuela, now 16, had been born, followed by their 14-year-old son Prince. All the while, Tyson’s boxing career was gathering pace – though not without early signs of the volatility that would dominate sections of his career: even before they married, Paris reveals he had dramatically declared he was quitting the sport after missing out on the Olympic squad. ‘He was wounded by that,’ Paris says. ‘He took a real hatred to it for a few months. Looking back now, you can see the pattern. It’s actually very similar to what’s happened at other times in his life.’
It’s clear Paris quickly became the practical one in their partnership: at just 18, while still on honeymoon, it was she who scrutinised her new husband’s first professional contract.
‘We sat down, two kids together, and read this really intricate legal document,’ she recalls. ‘I highlighted everything that didn’t seem right – and there was quite a lot – and sent it back to be amended.’ With the contract duly signed, the honeymoon was promptly cut short in order for Tyson to train for a fight.
‘That set the tone,’ she says, with a wry smile. ‘People see the big house and everything now, but what they don’t see is what he gave up to get it. He gave up a young person’s life, a social life, holidays. We both did. We didn’t go out, we didn’t drink. He was in the gym every day. I was his social life – just me and him together.’
As we know, it paid off: by 2011, Fury was already garnering headlines after winning the British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles. Then, as 2015 drew to a close, he became a global star following a historic win against long-reigning champ Wladimir Klitschko. The fight – watched ringside by Paris – was considered one of the biggest upsets in boxing history. ‘That was an amazing moment,’ she says.
But the euphoria didn’t last. In the aftermath, Fury experienced a severe mental health crisis: despite – or perhaps because of – achieving his lifelong goal, he immediately fell into a deep depression, marked by alcoholism and periods so bleak that he contemplated taking his own life.
He was subsequently diagnosed with bi-polar disorder, and has since spoken openly about his struggles with depression and addiction which also went hand in hand with a number of controversies. In 2015 he was implicated in a major doping scandal – furiously denied – after traces of a banned substance were found in a urine sample which he later blamed on eating uncastrated wild boar.
Tyson and Paris on their wedding day in 2008. The pair were married in Paris’s hometown of Doncaster
The couple’s first home was a 24ft trailer, parked in the yard of her mother’s house, in keeping with Traveller tradition
Paris quickly became the practical one in their partnership: at just 18, while still on honeymoon, it was she who scrutinised her new husband’s first professional contract
Later that year, more than 100,000 people signed a petition calling for him to be removed from the BBC Sports Personality of the year shortlist after the emergence of sexist and homophobic comments for which he later apologised at the ceremony.
The following year, he apologised again after making anti-Semitic comments and calling transgender people ‘freaks of nature’. ‘I’ve said some things which may have hurt some people which as a Christian man I would never want to do’, he said.
None of this appears to have dimmed public affection for Fury, and today Paris admits that, at the time, both she and his extended family did not fully understand what was happening. ‘It was hard,’ she says. ‘There were times when I thought I couldn’t deal with it. But I think the love that we’ve had for one another has kept me there. And it’s in the vows, isn’t it, in sickness and in health?
‘I can only speak for my relationship, but I always think that if the good outweighs the bad, it’s worth fighting for, because no relationship is sunshine and roses all the time.’
Her husband’s decision to open up about his struggles also brought an unexpected sense of relief.
‘Once it had been said out loud, it felt like a weight had lifted,’ she explains. ‘It was never a secret, but we just didn’t understand it before. Now I think we’ve come to the conclusion mental health is something you learn to live with, not something you cure. If you can live a healthy lifestyle with it, then great – and that’s what Tyson tries to advocate.’
That openness is reflected in their Netflix series, which offers an unusually unfiltered glimpse into their lives. ‘When we let cameras into the home, we agreed there’d be no airs and graces,’ she says. ‘We’re open books. We don’t need to hide anything.’
That means plenty of eye-popping moments and dramatic mood swings: one minute they’re joshing for the cameras, the next Fury’s making candid admissions that there were times when, even though he loves his wife and children, he didn’t always want to live.
The new series also promises plenty of similar light and shade, the former notably provided by the unexpected engagement of Venezuela to her 17-year-old boyfriend Noah Price – also a boxer – the proposal unfolding at her 16th birthday party (although her daughter had flagged his intentions to her mum beforehand).
Paris admits to being shocked by the news. ‘You think back to that age and you think you’re a woman – and of course you’re not,’ she says. ‘She’s still my baby.’
Public reaction to the news has been more divided, something Paris finds baffling.
‘People say, “She’s too young, she should live her life.” But in what way is she not living her life?’ she asks. ‘They’ve both got plans, they want to travel, she’s working, modelling. I can see how happy she is, and I believe she’s made the right decision.’
While she’s tight-lipped on whether a date has been set, Venezuela has already had her hen do, a raucous and lavish affair at Morecambe football club last week at which Paris joined her daughter in a metallic gold dress, partying until the small hours.
‘We all had such an amazing night — all the girls together,’ she says now. ‘I thought Venezuela looked beautiful.’
Perhaps surprisingly, Tyson is entirely in favour of the match. ‘He’s a big love story believer – a proper hopeless romantic,’ his wife laughs. ‘I call him “frilly knickers” because he’s got such a soft side. He just thinks, “They’re in love – isn’t it lovely?” I’m the more sensible one.’
In fairness, it would be hard for either to take a formal stance against their daughter’s engagement given how young they were when they wed. ‘I like to think we’re a good advert,’ she says. ‘People criticise those who get married young but we’ve been together 20 years, we still love each other, we still want to be together and I’m proud of that.’
Indeed, chatting to Paris about her life it’s sometimes hard to remember she’s still only 36. ‘A lot of people come out of university in their 20s still not knowing what they want to do,’ she says. ‘I knew from 17, 18 what my future looked like so I matured quickly. There were times I was in foreign countries on my own with two children and I just had to get on with it.’
Now, of course, her brood has expanded to seven, although the majority – ‘canny’ Tyson Junior, nine, ‘chatterbox’ Valencia, seven, ‘hot-headed’ Adonis, six, ‘delicate’ Athena, four – are at school when we meet, while the ‘sensible’ Venezuela is tucked away somewhere in their vast house helping to look after two year-old Rico.
Tyson in 2015 after defeating Wladimir Klitschko to become Heavyweight Champion
Paris with her eldest daughter Venezuela, 16, who recently announced her engagement to her 17-year-old boyfriend Noah Price
Prince, meanwhile, is currently training in Thailand with his father. ‘I really hate the thought of my kids boxing,’ she says.
‘But all the boys love it. I see Prince sparring with big men and I think, “This is not good.” I’m going to have to live this for the next 50 years – the grandkids will come along and no doubt they’ll want to do it too.’
In the meantime, Paris insists there’s no more need for a fresh supply of nappies: despite having once proclaimed she’d like ten children, she confides she is not planning any more additions.
‘I always imagined I’d have had more, but I’m blessed to have what I have.’
With a brood this size – and that money in the bank – you would be forgiven for thinking Paris has a retinue of staff. Surely a housekeeper at the very least?
‘I don’t have a cook or a housekeeper and that’s deliberate,’ she insists. ‘What kind of parent would I be if I didn’t teach the kids real life? You’ve got to get up, make your bed, clean your dishes. That’s the real world. I cook and clean pretty much every day and it’s important the kids see that.’
As Netflix viewers can testify, Tyson isn’t exactly the domesticated sort. ‘Tyson might have been the heavyweight champion of the world,’ Paris says wryly. ‘But he couldn’t do what I do. I genuinely think women are by far the stronger sex.’
Perhaps with an eye on the future, she’s also developing her own sidelines, previously collaborating with High Street retailer River Island on a clothing line and is brand ambassador for collagen supplement Eternal Collagen.
For all that, she knows her real job is to keep the home fires burning while her husband pursues the sport that has driven him since he was a teenager. As we speak, his fight against Arslanbek Makhmudov, nickname ‘the lion’, is looming, and Paris admits to feeling sick. ‘I don’t enjoy it at all,’ she says of watching her husband step into the ring.
‘I always think of the “what ifs?”. Yet she also knows she cannot stand in the way. ‘It’s like asking an artist not to paint,’ she says. ‘Some people are just wired differently. That’s their goal, and nothing else fulfils them. And that’s Tyson. All I can do is support. I can’t be the dream crusher.’
Not least because Paris is under no illusions about how difficult the final transition away from boxing may be. ‘He can’t box when he’s 60,’ she says. ‘So the day will have to come when retirement really means retirement. And I do worry about how that will go.’
For now at least, life continues at its usual relentless pace – a swirl of children, training camps and television cameras.
And through it all, one constant. ‘We all say that at the end of the day it’s Tyson’s world,’ says Paris. ‘We’re just living in it.’
- At Home with the Furys returns to Netflix on April 12.
