Tyson Fury has opened up about the heartbreak he endured when his wife Paris miscarried their eighth child just before his title fight with Oleksandr Usyk earlier this year.
Despite being six months along, the tragic news of the loss was kept from Fury until after the bout in Saudi Arabia, where he was defeated and lost his WBC world heavyweight title to Usyk in May.
The Gypsy King, age 36, discussed the personal tragedy for the first time, revealing his fears when Paris was too unwell to attend his fight. Regarding expanding their family, Fury said: “Never say never. I only have seven.”
Sadly reflecting on the ordeal, he added: “The one that she was having, she lost that on the Friday of the fight, which was pretty s****y.”
He described the profound loss and difficulty, saying: “She was six months pregnant. It’s not like a small miscarriage at the beginning – you have to physically give birth to a dead child, on your own, while your husband is in a foreign country. To go through that on your own isn’t good.”
READ MORE: Liam Payne said he ‘didn’t have many friends he could trust’ in texts to Paddy McGuinness
The heavyweight champion expressed sorrow over not being there to support his wife, saying: “I could not be there for her in that moment. And that’s tough for me. I have been with the woman for longer than I wasn’t with her, so it’s hard that I couldn’t be there with her in that time.”
Tyson understood something was amiss when Paris mentioned her health issues. He added: “When she said she couldn’t come over, I knew there was a problem. She usually comes out on fight week but she said she had high blood pressure.
“Turki Alalshikh (chairman of Saudi’s General Entertainment Authority) offered us a private jet to get around the high blood pressure and said she could bring the doctor with her.
“She said she couldn’t come. I asked her what was up and asked her to tell me, but she wouldn’t. So I knew, I knew, I knew there was a problem. I said to my brother ‘she’s lost that baby’. She never told me she had lost the baby, but I knew. When I got back I got the inevitable confirmation that it was gone, but she had kept it to herself.”
Fury is insistent the unfolding tragedy had no bearing on his clash with Usyk, a fight he believes he won but which was awarded to the Ukrainian by split decision. The rivals will meet again on December 21 but without the IBF belt at stake after Usyk chose to relinquish it rather than make a mandatory defence. Daniel Dubois is now the IBF champion.
“It’s not an excuse – hell no. I am a man of honour. I do what I have to do when I am in there,” he said. “I don’t think about that sort of stuff when I am in that fight. Nothing outside the ring matters, there is no emotion. You think about all that stuff afterwards.
“We have had miscarriages before. It happens. Will we have any more kids? I don’t know if she’s back to normal from that, it was only a few months ago. It takes a lot of getting over. But no more of this morbid stuff now because I’ll break down in tears.”