BOXING STAR’S WIFE ON HELPING
TYSON Fury’s devoted wife today tells how she bravely hid her baby heartbreak to protect the troubled boxer hours before he made his comeback.
Paris, 28, suffered a miscarriage on the morning of her husband’s victory against Albanian Sefer Seferi in June.
The urge to tell her man of their loss must have been overwhelming. But devastated Paris knew that the news could break him just as he was winning another important fight in his life – against suicidal mental health torment .
“I was about eight weeks pregnant,” she says. “Then on the day of the fight I knew I’d lost our baby.
“I didn’t mention it to Tyson before he went in the ring. Then straight after it I told him and the next day we went to the hospital and it was confirmed.”
But the couple, who already have four children, were soon to find comfort in their grief.
“Five weeks later we fell pregnant again – and now our new baby, a boy, is due in March. We were still heartbroken over our loss, but overjoyed at the same time.”
Five months on, millions of fans were thrilled last weekend as 6ft 9in Fury continued his comeback, beating the count during his LA fight with world heavyweight champ Deontay Wilder to earn a draw. Many experts claimed Fury should have won.
But Paris wasn’t surprised. She has seen first hand how her husband has fought hard in and out of the ring.
SUICIDAL
And today she tells the inside story on his two years of hell before being formally diagnosed with mental illness. Two years of depression, boozing, drugs and suicidal thoughts that left him on the ropes.
Mum-of four Paris dealt with it daily. And came close to walking out.
“But then I thought, ‘do you bail on someone you love? Do you let them deal with it themselves and let them crash and burn?’
“Tyson never quit on me and the children, and we didn’t quit on him.
“We’re together and we’re going through it together as a team.”
Paris chose to speak to the Sunday Mirror because of our award-winning Time to Change mental health campaign. She traces the beginnings of his problems back to his victory over Wladimir Klitschko in November 2015 when he won three world heavyweight titles.
“After that he was almost instantly depressed. I could see the next day something wasn’t right.
“He wasn’t talking like he is now, a normal happy person.
“It was like he was finished. He had completed boxing and it was over. He was saying ‘I’m never gonna top this’. The drive wasn’t there any more. Something else had taken over.”
Bewildered Tyson turned to booze and, at times, Class-A drugs. Paris says: “At first he was still celebrating and we’d go out together. Then he