I’m very proud of dad, says Frank Bruno’s daughter
As Britain’s best-loved boxer walks her down the aisle, Rachel Bruno reveals her fears that he would never be well enough
IT IS a bittersweet moment to which many a father looks forward but for the boxer Frank Bruno it must have been especially rewarding to walk his daughter down the aisle at the weekend. Frank has had some very well-documented problems with his mental health, to the extent that a few years back everyone involved could be forgiven for thinking that giving away his daughter would never happen.
But in the event, when he escorted his 30-year-old daughter Rachel down the aisle, the pair couldn’t have looked happier. “When Dad wasn’t well I feared it might not happen,” said Rachel. “But I am so proud of how he has turned things around. To marry the love of my life with my dad at my side is all I could ever have asked for.”
It’s a happy ending for Frank and Rachel – and Rachel’s new husband Bobby, of course – but in some ways for the rest of the country too. Frank remains a hugely popular figure – who could forget his famous “Know what I mean, ’Arry?” catchphrase to the BBC commentator Harry Carpenter – and there was a sense of genuine public concern when his bipolar disorder was diagnosed and he was sectioned three times under the Mental Health Act.
During those worrying episodes there was a fear that Frank would never recover but he has turned his life around since then, speaking out on mental health issues and supporting others, including Paul Gascoigne, with similar problems.
And now he has been there on his daughter’s big day, her wedding at Brentwood Cathedral in Essex. “I am so proud of how Dad is doing now,” Rachel said in an interview that took place before the ceremony. “Fighting a mental health condition isn’t easy. You have to live with it every day but this is the best he has been.”
Rachel has in fact been there for her father pretty much from the start. One of three children born to Frank and his wife Laura, who divorced in 2001, Rachel was just eight in 1995 when her father became the heavyweight champion of the world. “You’re the champion Daddy – I knew you would do it for me,” she said as she was pictured holding his title belt the day after the fight.
But Frank’s problems surfaced soon after he retired a year later and matters came to a head when, with the family’s approval, he was sectioned in 2003. It was Rachel’s older sister Nicola, now 34, who had to sign the papers and Frank readmitted himself two years ago after a relapse.
OF THE difficult time her father spent in hospital, Rachel says: “To go from how dark he was at certain times is simply incredible. He is a totally different person. Having to see Dad all those times in hospital was really hard for me, Nicola and my brother Franklin.
“I remember sitting in the car crying after every visit. I am proud he fought so hard to get out because, of course, there were moments I was thinking: ‘Is he going to be there?’ I am just so glad he is.”
Indeed it was a fit and healthy Frank who was pictured with a beaming Rachel as she married her long-term beau, businessman Bobby Hardy, 33, whom she first met when she was just 15.
Clad in a stylish Suzanne Neville gown, Rachel’s mother Laura was also present, although there seemed a strained air between the ex-couple. However the day itself could hardly have been happier. “Life’s good,” said Frank before the ceremony. “There have been ups and downs in the past few years but life is very, very good now. The wedding is an up. It will be emotional – she will always be my little girl.
“I might have a few tears. It is a moment every father who is lucky enough to have a daughter dreams about so I am looking forward to it.”
Father and daughter arrived at the Catholic cathedral in a Rolls-Royce Phantom, after Bobby proposed in Dubai, according to a Sunday newspaper, writing, “Will you marry me?” on the sand. Bobby, the director of a maintenance firm, was not fazed when he found his new girlfriend’s father was a world champion boxer; according to Rachel, Bobby respected Frank from the outset and so there was never an issue. And Frank himself sounded delighted at his daughter’s choice.
“He’s a great kid and Bobby and Rachel make a fantastic couple,” he said. “When he turned up to meet me he had a little yellow car with bigger speakers in it than I had. So I thought I might need to have a word about that!
“But it was clear straight away that Rachel was so in love. He looks after her and I don’t think Rachel could have found a better guy to spend her life with.”
After the breakdown of his own marriage, Frank went on to have a relationship with Yvonne Chamberlain and she gave birth to his daughter Freya in 2006. But the pair are no longer an item and Frank spends much of his time these days working on behalf of those with mental health problems.
He has set up the Frank Bruno Foundation and appeared with Rachel in a BBC documentary called My Dad Frank, Bipolar Disorder And Me.
“It’s good that people can feel more open,” Frank said. “It can save lives.”
Frank’s fightback against his problems has been quite as brave as anything in the ring – and the whole country will be hoping that a considerably happier period awaits Britain’s best-loved boxer from now on.