KATIE: My tears over rift with dad
Katie reveals pain in documentary at falling out with Pete & how she fought back to top
KATIE Taylor has admitted she felt like she was missing her right arm stepping into the ring without her boxing coach dad Pete in her corner.
The 32-year-old breaks down in her eponymous documentary during the only interview she’s ever given on camera about the split.
At one point Katie, who was officially ranked the world’s greatest female boxer of all time on Friday, gets so emotional she can’t get the words out.
Welling up, she said: “I think for the first time I seen, kind of… I get emotional.”
The interview is paused to allow Katie to compose herself.
She added: “My dad decided to step away from the family and start a life with this other girl. I was going from seeing my dad every day to not seeing him at all.
“My success in the ring doesn’t mean as much to me as my integrity really and that is definitely the most important thing to me.” Earlier in the feature-length documentary, which airs on RTE next week, she tells how her relationship with her dad is key to her success. But later she breaks down again when she revealed: “I felt like my dad was somebody I could no longer work with really.
“The first time I had to go training without him I was going in by myself and the tears were actually rolling down my face. I was like this is actually a reality for me.
“I never thought I’d have to do this without him.
“I knew when I made the decision to step away from my dad that was going to cost me a lot.
“I just felt like every time I stepped into the ring without my dad at that time that I was missing my right arm.”
The award-winning film directed by Ross Whitaker follows Katie as she tries to put her life back together after suffering a crushing defeat at
the Rio Olympics. Her brother Peter describes their dad as “a well-rounded coach and tactician” who had “a really in-depth knowledge of strength and conditioning”.
He said of the split: “To Katie this was the most heartbreaking news. I mean, to all of us in the family this was really heartbreaking.
“She couldn’t look at him in the corner any more. The trust was broken.”
Peter said he realised as Katie headed for the ring in her quarter-final bout in Rio she was not in as good a shape as she was for the London Olympics.
He added: “She was basically trying to do it on her own at that point.
“It [her defeat] was hard to watch, hard for all of us to watch.”
Their deeply religious mother Bridget reveals the toll Pete’s decision to leave and end the marriage took not only on her but on the entire family.
Pete was born near Leeds in the UK and worked the Bray arcades as a young man before taking up the gloves and winning the Irish light heavyweight title in 1986.
He started training Katie at the age of six after he found her sparring with the boys when he brought her to the gym because he couldn’t get a babysitter.
Bridget raised her four children Lee, Sarah, Katie and Peter within the Pentecostal faith and would regularly read from the Bible to Katie before a fight.
But things fell apart for a while when Pete left.
Bridget said: “It was a complete shock for me, I think I described it as feeling like I was hit with a train.
“It’s hard enough going through something yourself but when you’re watching people you love struggling as well… the emotional turmoil was just huge.” Katie later talks of having a “great” meeting with her father some time after their 2016 parting which she sees as “the start of restoration”. But as she visits the family home and shows off her collection of silverware in the “trophy room” she admits the crushing defeat in Rio still haunts her. Noting what’s missing she said: “The Rio gold. It’s eating away at me. I don’t know how to get over it.” While admitting her shock defeat was the low point of her career she resolved to make the changes needed and take a stab at a professional boxing career. A Twitter message in October 2016 to promoter Eddie Hearn paved the way for what has since become one of the most lucrative partnerships in the business.
Katie now holds two of the world titles at lightweight after racking up a sequence of 12 successive victories.
Her next fight is on March 16 in Philadelphia with an opponent yet to be named. A future showdown with her lightweight rival and reigning WBC title holder Delfine Persoon is also on the cards.
Revealing she had yet to watch the documentary, Katie said: “For the first time, maybe, people will see the real me in the documentary – get to know my real personality.
“And I think that’s very important but most importantly, I guess, I just hoped it would encourage people.”
Katie is on RTE One on Tuesday at 10.15pm.
She couldn’t look at him in the corner any more. The trust was broken
PETER TAYLOR BROTHER IN KATIE DOCUMENTARY Rio gold is eating away at me and I don’t know how to get over it
KATIE TAYLOR ON PAIN AT MISSING OUT AT OLYMPICS