HE’S known as the ‘Gypsy King’ – but for Tyson Fury it’s much more than a nickname.
Despite being worth an estimated £130million, the multi-heavyweight champion and his family strive to keep their traveller heritage alive.
Tyson, 35, hails from a family of travellers on both his mum and dad’s side – and their love for the culture has been showcased on the new Netflix documentary At Home With the Furys.
Here we take a look at all the ways the larger-than-life Furys have kept their gypsy heritage alive.
Caravan dream
While many boxers as successful as him would have splashed the cash on super cars and expensive jewellery, Tyson celebrated his huge win against Wladimir Klitschko, who had gone unbeaten for 11 years, by treating himself to a new £4,000 caravan.
After the match, he vowed: “I always said that winning the heavyweight championship of the world wouldn’t change me, that earning some money or being in the limelight wouldn’t change me. It won’t.”
At one point, Tyson even considered giving up his £500,000 mansion in Morecambe for a simpler life.
In the documentary, he tells wife Paris, 34, who he married in 2008: “Your dream is the big house but my dream is this, living in a caravan, hanging out the kids all over me. I’m actually living out my dream right now.”
Although living an extravagant lifestyle is not his top priority, he admits Paris has become accustomed to the finer things in life.
“Money isn’t the be-all and end-all of everything,” he says. “But for Paris, it’s probably harder to go from lemonade to Champagne and back to lemonade again, rather than never having Champagne.”
During the May half-term holidays this year, the family stayed in an enormous VIP caravan.
Paris even shared snaps of the £40,000 mobile home’s interior and wrote: “Had a good week in the trailer (caravan) for half term. The kids loved it.”
Frugal lifestyle
While they do treat themselves to luxury holidays, in the documentary Paris proves she’s not all about the glitz and glamour and like her husband, is determined to honour her traditions as a traveller.
She says: “We were brought up on a gypsy site, a caravan park.
“Yes, we have plenty of money and can buy what we want, but we don’t. We’re not into spend spend spend, no max no limits.”
The family have made no secret about their frugal lifestyle – for Tyson’s birthday, Paris bought him a £5 T-shirt along with pants and socks.
Last year Tyson shared insight into their family’s shopping habits.
Discussing his bout against Oleksandr Usyk, with a rumoured ‘£500million‘ at stake, he says: “If I got half a billion I might start shopping at Sainsbury’s instead of Asda.
“And if I get another half a billion, I might up the ante and shop in M&S. Come on!”
Kids home-schooled
Tyson and Paris share six children together with a seventh due next month. Their daughter Venezuela, 13, is the eldest. In-keeping with their traveller beliefs, she’s been home-schooled since age 11.
Explaining their decision, Tyson says: “Venezuela came out of school at 11 because that’s what we do in the traveller world, to learn their parents’ skills.
“She’s home-schooled but she’s coming with me today to see if there’s anything that inspires her for the future.”
Paris, who is a stay-at-home mum, also mentions how she’s keen to pass on cooking and cleaning skills she learned as a teenager to Venezuela.
At one point in the film, Paris asks her daughter: “Do you not want to follow in the Gypsy tradition, be a wifey?” – but Venezuela is not keen on the idea and says she’s not interested.
Traveller fashion
Paris also makes sure her kids are always decked in the finest outfits, in-line with gypsy tradition.
“Like with most travellers, we dress to impress,” Paris declares in the documentary.
While Paris is partial to designer brands like Gucci, Prada and Balmain, she also embraces high street fashion.
She often shops for her and the kids in Zara, Primark and Asda.
Their style is typical of traveller fashion – bold colours and prints, matching outfits, glowing tans and glamorous make-up with big lashes.
Earlier this year it was revealed that Paris splashed almost £1,000 on matching Easter outfits for five of her children.
She also bought three matching £168 Versace shirts for the boys.
Sharing her purchase on Instagram, she said: “Fresh set each for Easter. Love kids clothes, think it’s partly my addiction.”
Gypsy trailer ‘fitness’ regime
Away from his family life, Tyson often turns to his heritage to help him with some of his biggest bouts.
As part of his preparations for his match with arch-rival Deontay Wilder in 2021, he slept in a caravan behind his house to “feel all of that DNA from the generations of bare-knuckle fighters and boxers in the family”.
That’s not his only bizarre fitness method – in 2020, cameras filmed him hauling a gold-pleated gypsy wagon down the streets of Morecambe.
Family tradition
Paris and Tyson’s three sons – Prince John James, Prince Tyson, and Prince Adonis Amaziah – were all trained to box from a young age, keeping it in the family.
And the sport runs in the family – like their traveller roots.
In the documentary Tyson says his cousin and fellow boxer Hughie was a “true original Snatch character” – referencing the gypsy characters from the Guy Ritchie movie – and gave viewers a tour of his caravan in an archive clip.
Giving viewers a closer glimpse into his family, the WBC Heavyweight champion also reveals how his uncle Hugh ‘Hughie’ Fury tragically died from an accident with a caravan which resulted in a blood clot.
The horse dealer and boxing coach – who helped train Tyson early in his career – lay in a coma for 11 weeks before he died in the Royal Lancaster Infirmary in October 2014.
Hughie broke his leg when the drawbar of a caravan fell on it as he moved it. At first he refused the recommended treatment – but when he eventually underwent surgery his heart stopped on the operating table.
His cause of death was found to be bronchial pneumonia resulting from a pulmonary embolism and cardiac arrest.
‘Prepper’ life
Tyson’s own father John had high hopes of living completely off-grid – and has discussed his desire to be prepared for survival when disaster strikes.
He even has a number of 1950s Soviet Russia military vans which he has repaired and restored.
In an archive video, John says: “I want to go back to ground roots, I’ve been in a caravan all me life.”
He also insists he doesn’t get on very well with his family as they are “too modern” while he’s “old fashioned”.
He says in the documentary: “I’m a travelling man. I was born in a caravan. Gimme me caravan, gimme me dog, gimme me family and let me get in the middle of that field where I belong.”
