Tyson Fury’s daughter Venezuela quit school when she was just 11 due to a cultural tradition – and the world champion’s five other children will follow suit.
The heavyweight and his wife Paris come from a Traveller background, where families prefer to leave school when they get to primary age. And despite being a new-age family in many ways, the Fury family have decided to follow the tradition even though they had initial trepidations.
Paris and Tyson met at the age of 14 and have six children; Venezuela, 13, Prince John James, nine, Prince Tyson II, four, Valencia, three, and baby Athena who was born prematurely in August of last year. And Venezuela has already left school after her mother insisted on keeping up the tradition.
The family have a palatial home in Morecambe, which they got a lot of use out of this year as they stayed away from their other home just outside of Las Vegas. Fury bought their other house when he was fighting exclusively in America, but he appears now to have based himself fully back in the UK, including for his fighting career.
And Paris was the driving force behind deciding that their children would stick with the tradition, explaining: “We finish school at primary age, which is the traditional traveller way,” she has said. “We’ve just brought the tradition into the 21st century. Venezuela wanted to leave school and all her friends were leaving. Her tutor is going to keep her up to date with all of her tests. She will also be having piano lessons.”
The world heavyweight champion has his reservations about his children not going to school, and would prefer that the boys, at the least, continue with their education. This came to light during their 2020 documentary on ITV, but it seems that Paris has put her foot down on the issue.
Me and Tyson have talked about the kids going to school,” added Paris. “Tyson wants the boys to go into education but I don’t; it’s just not what we’ve ever done. I was brought up as a Traveller and I want my kids to be brought up as Travellers. They will probably leave school at 11 and they’ll be educated at home from then. The boys will take a wife and make their family and the girls will take a husband and make their family. Until they take a husband or wife they won’t be leaving the home and I wouldn’t want them to.”
Her husband had his own argument, adding: “You say it’s something we’ve never done but I’m a precedent setter, am I not? Now I’ve set these laws and precedents, you watch how many will follow. The parents of these kids, I call them dream killers. Just because something went wrong in their life you can’t pawn it off on your kids.”
Fury is set to defend his world heavyweight title tonight at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium against Derek Chisora in a controversial trilogy. And he is expected to fight for the undisputed title against Oleksandr Usyk early next year assuming he gets through his fellow Brit.
