the times Saturday April 30 2022
Body + Soul 11
DAVE BENETT/WIREIMAGE, NIGEL RODDIS/GETTY IMAGES;younger brother, Haroon, were getting
into it after a night out in Birmingham.
The incident ended with Khan and
his brother (also a boxer) knocking
two of the men unconscious before
speeding away.
“That was just a physical attack so I
could handle it,” he says. “Thing is, with the
gun one, I’m glad it’s happened when I’m
older because if I was younger I might have
retaliated. And then — well, one of
them would have pulled the trigger and
this would be a murder inquiry.”
The pair are talking to me to promote
the second series of their BBC reality show
Meet the Khans: Big in Bolton — a fly-on-
the-wall documentary of their lives in the
vein of Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
The first series aired in 2021 and was
primarily a fascinating insight into the life
of Khan, who was, after all, a British boxing
prodigy who first came to our attention
20 years ago. After winning several
national school titles and a gold medal at
the junior Olympics, he won a silver medal
at the 2004 Olympics in Athens aged just- Since then he has been a world
We thought we
were going to die
Amir Khan and his
wife describe the
terrifying day they
were mugged at
gunpoint. By
Michael Odell
A
s soon as he saw the muz-
zle of the gun, Amir Khan
thought his life was over.
“I was terrified. Truly
terrified. I thought first
they’ll kill me then
my wife.”
There were two assailants, both armed.
“I looked into their eyes. They were
street kids. And sometimes they take what
they want, then kill you anyway.”
Khan, 35, the former Olympic silver
medallist and double world champion
boxer is recounting the events of a
terrifying mugging he and his wife, Faryal
Makhdoom, recently endured outside a
restaurant in Leyton, east London, after
going out to dinner to break their Rama-
dan fast. The two assailants stole Khan’s
£72,000 diamond-encrusted Franck
Muller watch, which he immediately gave
up, with Makhdoom witnessing events
from just a few yards behind him.
“It didn’t occur to me this was a robbery,”
says Makhdoom, 30. “I thought they’ve
come to kill Amir and then they’ll shoot
me in the back as I run. But I did run.
Otherwise, I thought, our kids will never
see us again. That’s what went through my
mind: the end of our family, and for what?”
They are talking to me from their
second home in Dubai. The couple, who
are usually based in Khan’s home town of
Bolton, flew out there two days after the
crime because they were so shaken up.
(Their three children, Lamaisah, seven,
Alayna, four, and Muhammad, two,
remained with family in Bolton.)
“We had to get out,” Khan says. “I left
England because I don’t want to be a
target. To be honest, I thought [with] east
London having such a big Asian commu-
nity I’d get nothing but love there.”
Makhdoom, a fashion and beauty influ-
encer, who has been married to Khan since
2013, believes the mugging for the watch
was fuelled by their active social media
presence and willingness to pose for selfies
with fans. He has 1.4 million followers on
Instagram, she has nearly a million.
“We didn’t post where we were going
that night, but you wear nice things on
social media and people notice,” she says.
“Then they track you. Or it might have
been someone in the restaurant spotting
Amir’s watch and making a call. You just
don’t know.”
Although the family are based in Bolton
and regularly holiday in Dubai, where
they own a colonnaded mansion with a
pool, Khan says they had recently been
contemplating buying a home in London.
Now they have decided against this, given
the extra security they believe they would
need for a move to the capital. “You can
spend £5-6 million on a London house but
you’re not even safe. I’m already looking
at private security packages — a car,
bodyguards and a driver and the prices
are ‘Wow’.”
“But also, who wants to live like that?”
Khan says. “I like being normal. I like
meeting people.”
The boxer points out that this is not the
first time he has been targeted. Ten years
ago a group of men tried to steal his
£100,000 Range Rover while he and his
champion, got married and had three
children, but also battled all manner of
domestic tribulations.
The show’s award-nominated first
season even featured segments filmed in
therapy sessions undertaken by Makh-
doom as she strove to save the couple’s
marriage after a string of his infideli-
ties. The new season reveals them
embracing a new marital dynamic:
Makhdoom is now his manager
and the dominant force in the
household. We see them planning
to renew their marital vows for
their tenth wedding anniversary
next year.
“There were 4,000 people at our
first wedding and I didnt know half of
them,” Makhdoom says. “This time I’d
like 50 to 100 friends. But I also want a big
party. I think I deserve a massive party for
putting up with Amir for ten years.”
The couple met in a New York restau-
rant in 2012 when Makhdoom was a 21-
year-old law student and Khan was 26.
They married a year later when Khan’s
career was at its peak. He was already theworld light welterweight champion and a
multimillionaire (he earned £11 million in
prize money the next year alone).
“I grew up being told what to do,” he says.
“I started boxing aged 11, so it was, ‘Go to
training, go to school,’ and then suddenly
there’s the responsibilities of marriage. I
was a very young millionaire who wanted
to taste freedom.”
Two affairs followed and by 2017 the
marriage had become regular tabloid
fodder. The couple split up, with Khan
accusing Makhdoom of being a “gold-
digger” and having an affair with the world
heavyweight champion boxer Anthony
Joshua. She denied it and an astonished
Joshua joined the fray to say he’d never
met her. Meanwhile, Makhdoom de-
nounced her husband as a “30-year-old
baby”, a “pants-down cheater”.
Incredibly, despite such a public display
of acrimony the couple were reconciled
after six months apart.
“It was killing me,” Khan says. “You’re
playing hide and seek with yourself.
You’re single but you miss the wife and kids
and you don’t really enjoy life.”
“Amir put me through a lot,” Makhdoom
says. “I was a normal girl who married a
celebrity at his peak. But having kids
helped him to mature and it was a blessing
in disguise because the whole experience
made me such a strong woman. He’d be
too scared to do anything like that now.”
Khan smiles at this statement and
it’s a common theme played out in the
show, with Makhdoom reminding her
husband that he finds her being in
control “attractive”.
“I do need a firm hand,” he says.
In their first series Makhdoom admits
she has never seen her husband fight.
Now she is his manager, entrusted with
organising his fights, which still earn big
money. He lost his most recent showdown,
in February, with welterweight contender
Kell Brook in Manchester, but still earned
a reported £5 million.
Bizarrely, Makhdoom also admits to
keeping the passwords to Khan’s smart-
phone and also looks after his passport.
“That’s actually illegal, not giving
someone their passport, you know?”
Khan complains.
“But you asked me to keep it, otherwise
you’ll lose it,” she counters.
Is Khan worried that boxing has dam-
aged his memory?
“I have good days and bad days. Some-
times I think about it because I forget
things — and you’re only one punch away
from really serious injury, aren’t you?”
“That’s why I don’t watch,” Makhdoom
says. “Though sometimes I wonder if you
only forget things you want to forget.”
“I get punched in the head for a living,
you know?” Khan grumbles.
If they weren’t recovering from their
recent trauma in Dubai they’d probably be
at home in Bolton this weekend. Khan
would do a barbecue or Makhdoom
might make dinner.
“She has help though, you know?”
Khan insists.
“Yes, I’m not a great cook,”
Makhdoom admits. “So we have a
private chef two or three times a
week. That’s one of the benefits of
being married to a millionaire.”
“You shouldn’t say that,” Khan
whispers. “That’s wrong.”
They are a funny, spiky double act,
but last week’s armed stick-up has
clearly made them think twice about
being so public with their lives.
“I love the UK,” Makhdoom says, “but
people prepared to destroy a
whole family for a watch? That’s wrong.
That’s insane.”
Series two of Meet the Khans: Big in Bolton
is on BBC Three on Thursdays at 8pm and
is available on BBC iPlayerAmir Khan with his
wife, Faryal MakhdoomKhan, left, in the
ring with Kell Brook
in February