Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
£23M BOXER &
Amir Khan’s wife Faryal says he no longer cheats on her now he’s an “old man”, although she readily admits: “We’ve been through hell and back.”
The 34-year-old fighter has been accused of cheating more than nine times but vows he is a “changed man”.
And in a new Kardashians-style flyon-the-wall TV show, Faryal, 29, tells how she did not want to “give up” on the father of their children.
The New Yorker has forgiven him but still struggles with being branded a “gold-digger” and a “doormat” by social media trolls. She also had a bitter spat with Amir’s family.
The cameras chronicle the couple and their children, Lamaisah, six, Alayna, two, and one-year-old Muhammad at their £1.5million home in BBC Three series Meet the Khans: Big in Bolton.
Faryal insists: “We’ve moved on. The past is the past, we were young, we grew up together – the bad and the good.
“Amir was so famous and so young when I first started dating him and married him, and now it’s like... he’s an old man!”
“It changes with time,” agrees Amir. “When you have three kids, it changes your responsibilities. I’ve had that crazy life before, now I’m a changed man.”
Faryal even invites cameras into a therapy session where she discusses the couple’s rocky past, and admits she experienced postnatal depression after having their firstborn.
Allegations of Amir’s cheating include flings while they were engaged and while Faryal was pregnant, and claims of a threesome and online sex chats.
“My relationship still gets judged for what I’ve been through,” Faryal tells the therapist, weeping. “A lot of people have ups and downs – the only difference is my marriage is quite public. I married a celebrity.”
The couple said they “cherished” spending time together in the pandemic, and apologised for breaching lockdown rules.
“Sadly we ain’t stuck to the rules at times,” Amir said. “It’s been very hard for me, I have struggled because I’m an outgoing person. I love to socialise with people and see my family. I do apologise. We do regret it.”
Amir also confirmed he has been talking to promoter Eddie Hearn about a potential fight with Kell Brook.
“I want to get back in the ring, I’ve been missing it,” he said. Amir rose to fame when he won a silver medal at the 2004 Olympics at 17 – Britain’s youngest boxing medallist. He went on to hold two world titles and is now estimated to be worth £23m.
Explaining his behaviour, Faryal says, sympathetically: “He was never able to enjoy his youth because of all his hard work, so he never really got it out of his system. He’d get caught in the wrong