Tyson Fury’s daughter, Venezuela, is not waiting around.
This week, at her 16th birthday party, she said yes to give her hand in marriage to young boxer Noah Price. And so begins their wait until she is 18 (his age remains a mystery), when wedlock will be legal.
The news has provoked a strong reaction, even concern. But within the Fury camp there are no such tremors, only joy. Father Tyson and Mother Paris have posted about it proudly on social media, delighted for their daughter’s big step.
It may take them back to their own courtship. Tyson and Paris met at a mutual friend’s wedding in 2005 when they were just 17 and 15 respectively.
They didn’t dilly-dally either. In November 2008, when they were 21 and 19, they sealed the deal at a church in Doncaster.
Ironically, just a few months before, Tyson and Paris had actually broken up. But then again, The Gypsy King has never gone about anything conventionally.
Tyson Fury and his wife Paris may look back on their own wedding in 2008 after their daughter’s news
Their 16-year-old daughter, Venezuela, sais yes to boyfriend Noah at her birthday party
Tyson and Paris married in a Catholic ceremony in 2008 – just months after splitting up!
The pair had clashed about the timing of the wedding. Tyson was eager to bring the wedding forward to the summer, but Paris wanted to keep the original date.
‘My fiance clearly didn’t understand the amount of planning and organisation that went into a wedding. I was beginning to realise how incredibly impulsive he was, the sort of person who lived life in the moment and liked to make decisions on the hoof,’ Paris revealed in her 2021 memoir.
‘In Tyson’s world, our big day could be rescheduled on a whim, just like one of his boxing matches. I was having none of it, though, and refused point blank to change the date.
‘As tensions simmered between us, I soon found myself reaching breaking point. It was one conflict after another and after an ugly slanging match with him outside Mam’s house, I decided to call time on the wedding and our relationship.
‘He thought I was joking and when I dropped the big bombshell, then he realised I was deadly serious,’ she wrote. ‘I simply couldn’t take any more, I told him. As far as I was concerned, we were done. Our courtship was over.’
Tyson had been eager to have a summer wedding after missing out on the beijing Olympics, which opened up his schedule.
But the factor which almost tore them apart for good ended up bringing them together, because it was after a summertime lads’ holiday in Ibiza that he poured out his heart via text.
‘He sent me an emotionally-charged text. He told me he couldn’t believe I’d abandoned our relationship so easily, and he couldn’t bear the thought of me meeting somebody else,’ Paris wrote.
They got married young, but Venezuela could do so even earlier. The age of her young chap, Noah, is not clear
The Fury parents have renewed their vows twice in 2023 and earlier this year (above, France)
The couple were joined by their children, Prince John James, Prince Tyson II, Valencia, Prince Adonis Amaziah, Athena, Prince Rico, and Venezuela
‘He ended the message by warning me that if I ever got married, he’d turn up to the church to halt the ceremony. I was furious. “You creep,” I said to myself as I deleted the message. Talk about having your cake and eating it. How dare you.’
But Paris did change her mind. In a stroke of fortune, her mum, Lynda, had never cancelled the venue, believing that the two would always ‘patch things up’.
And so it came to be that they stood before 300 loved ones at St Peter-In-Chains Roman Catholic Church in Doncaster and exchanged their vows.
Not that everything went smoothly – Tyson hadn’t booked a hotel room for their wedding night!
‘Imagine my surprise when my husband led me through the entrance of a town centre hotel, strode up to the reception, rang the bell and asked the girl at the desk if he could reserve a room for the night,’ Paris wrote.
‘I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.’
At their faith in God dictated, the pair had waited until marriage to sleep together.
‘Even after we got engaged, Tyson would sleep in a caravan at my parents’ home, while I slept inside the house,’ Paris told the Irish Mirror.
Venezuela appeared to debut her new romance at Ascot back in June, with Noah taking to Instagram to share a number of loved-up snaps from a date at the York races
Tyson appeared to respond to critics of his daughter’s engagement at 16 by sharing a video posted by an account focusing on ‘Islamic reminders, stories and reflections.’
Paris initially felt Tyson looked too ‘old’ and they even split months before the wedding over a clash of when they wanted it , but a text message from him salvaged the romance
Tyson pictured with his eldest daughter Venezuela, who is engaged to her boxer boyfriend
It was, in some ways, an unlikely union. Paris’ first impression of Tyson had not exactly been the best when they met at that friend’s wedding.
‘I was first introduced to Tyson by his Auntie Theresa. She’s known as the matchmaker in the family. She said to Tyson: “Come and meet this young lady”. I lifted my head and I was expecting to see someone at eye level because I’m not small myself, I’m five foot eight.
‘I remember thinking, “Who is this old man you’re introducing me to?”
‘He had a full beard, and was built like a machine. I thought, “You’re not a young boy… I’m going… You’ve introduced me to an old man.”‘
But slowly Tyson won her over, with a succession of ice skating and cinema dates. One misstep was comparing her to a Sindy doll – she wanted to be called a Barbie.
And it looks like things worked out in the end. In 2009, the year after they were married, they had Venezuela, the first of seven children.
And they have even renewed their vows twice since. Firstly, they did it in New York in 2013, and then earlier this year they ‘married’ again alongside their kids in the south of France.
Speaking about renewing their vows in January Paris told OK!: ‘I don’t want a big ceremony or a big wedding, I’d like something private with just me and him.
‘It’ll be nice to reaffirm our vows. If he had his way he’d have it like a circus – a whole Big Fat Gypsy Wedding again! But I think I’ll go subtle.’
