How did Tyson Fury’s daughter get married at 16?

[Wouldcou]

I thought they changed the law and you had to be 18 in the UK?

Yes they do but it's obviously much harder to reach those goals without having gone through secondary education. Homeschooling is not practiced amongst my family or any of the other families in the Travelling community that I know of (despite claims to the contrary).

I was removed from education at 10 years old. I eventually went back to study as an adult and gaining my GCSEs, A levels and a Law degree. It angers me so much that I wasn't given the right to an education as a child.
My nieces and nephews have all been removed from school at the end of primary. I kept my children in and they are currently in secondary school. By age 16 their life chances and opportunities will be so much greater than that of their cousin's but that's ok because you know...it's cultural. It's an absolute disgrace that it's still happening to our children because of outdated traditions not being challenged.

Denying children an education makes it far easier to ensure they have no other options. And who does that benefit? Not the uneducated child whose 'normal' is actually far from 'normal', that's for sure. What a sad, waste of any kind of potential they may otherwise have had.
But 'they're happy' right?

Of course, it's not because they don't know any different 🙄
Or because of how happy those around them are that they are 'choosing' to play the role that they have been moulded to play
No, they're 'in love'. Their stunted emotional and social growth has nothing to do with anything 🙄

Well, no, not at all actually.

I am not from a traveller background btw so I have no horse in this race as it were. I just think it’s very short sighted for people to say she can’t get divorced because she comes from that background. People get divorced every day, from all kinds of backgrounds, sometimes completely cutting all contact with their own families to do so - I do have experience of that. I think - whatever else people think of them - Tyson and Paris do love their children, they may say all these things to her now but if she was genuinely unhappy I think they would support her in leaving him. That’s not missing the point at all.

I do think it’s important we challenge things in other cultures we think are wrong and not to just accept them because “culture”.

Paris is a phenomenal woman, the end. Such strong family values, can tell her family mean everything to her, love it! Someone you could truly trust and depend on in life.

In this country you have Romanichal who are British by being here generations, and culturally European Rom who hold British passports.
(I don't speak for Irish Travelers)

Romanichals can take up all professions but are generally less likely to.

Rom also can, and are more likely to, but usually at older ages than Gaudja society.

Being gay is not generally a good idea as the Gaudja community will reject for being Rom, and the Rom community for being Gay..

We have teachers, MP's, even police officers, same as most communities I imagine.

"If it works".. by what measurement? It's quite ignorant and cowardly to refuse to get involved in cases of misogyny and child sexual exploitation, usually as a result of virtue signalling (and cowardice). When it's one gender experiencing restrictions, that's a problem. If it were both: you'd have a leg to stand on. And children being married off is not up for debate. It's wrong.

If the traveller men earn so much money and are such wonderful providers they can pay for private education or tuition for their dc if the reason they aren’t being educated is the poor quality of state schools. I cannot believe in 2026 adult women are arguing that being deliberately uneducated, married off as a child and being expected to cook, clean and bear children and do nothing else and have no access to your own money is preferable to taking some responsibility for your life and doing your best with the education and job opportunities available to you.

You are missing the point because to her it might not be an unhappy marriage, doesn’t mean that it’s a good life for her to live as a young 16-year-old
She’s likely not going to go to her mother who subservient and tell her that she’s not happy being subservient.

If you are up for answering polite queries, could I ask if there's any stigma attached to women who are unable to bear children? I ask because when the general culture in England was that women married and stayed home with the kids, women who did not manage to conceive were often treated badly by their husbands and society in general. Including women who could not carry a baby to term. That's because the purpose of women was seen as having children. If she couldn't fulfill that purpose, her value was diminished. It would always be her fault, even if it might have been HIM firing blanks.

Absolutely not.

Yes, all mum is going to do is tell her/support her to put up with it.

Its like if a woman in the 50s or 1850s complained about a husband, they'd be met with a shrug of the shoulders and a sigh and a comment that 'its a womans lot' and this is what we do. Solidarity but not empowerment to change.

She has access to money. Her dad is a multi millionaire.

She has more access to money than most of us on this thread!

They don’t earn such good money.
I had one in front of me in the queue in sports Direct handing over his cash to buy some shitty Nike T-shirt being rude to the lad behind the counter trying to goad him that he earned £20 an hour this week in exchange for his labour. I doubt very much if he paid tax on that £20 an hour but there he was peaking at 18 whilst the guy behind the counter in sports Direct I happen to know was at university and his parents owned half of Warwickshire not rising to it.
And before anybody asks how I know he was a traveller there’s always enough clues, but carrying on like a lamb chop stinking of alcohol is usually the biggest one

Thinking about it, if the marriage age is 18, then surely the age of consent has to be increased as well - otherwise, it's saying that sex (and therefore having children if they have agency over their own body and reproductive choices, rather than being forced/coerced or otherwise told to terminate which MN tells women to do all the time) is acceptable for a 16 year old, but that same 16 year old can't possibly enter a legal contract that it is said repeatedly on Mumsnet is an absolute prerequisite for mothers to protect themselves.

She absolutely doesn’t. She has to stay in her lane.

Thanks for the answer.

Haha. I saw someone online that worked on the show say that was scripted drama for the netflix show.

Well, I am, given that the UK is a signatory to the UN goal to end child marriage, defined as the marriage of anyone under 18, and one of the goals of that is for all participating countries to raise the minimum age to 18. (I am aware that Scotland is not meeting this either.)

Not entirely sure why you're being so figuratively wide-eyed about the idea that any country's legislation may be insufficient.

I suggest you take a look at https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/en/articles/un-cefm-resolution/

I don't feel like this is representative of British culture or traveller culture. Why are you guys so extreme, ffs.

Exploitation and abuse cannot be excused as "cultural traditions". Every person in this country has the same rights to protection.

I’m sure quite a lot of it was scripted for the show, including Paris being able to leave the house without the children. That’s certainly not normal behaviour within the community.

Only 10 years older

I thought it was her mother at first

I actually can't believe that these are people's real opinions. It's not my culture so I can't comment? Is that how they think the world works? I think this is disgusting, and I got married at 20 myself and am actually a big proponent of young marriage. It's just by young, I don't mean child!

Thank you for your posts @SpringLicken , they give a very different perspective on this.

Choice is only real choice if there are other options. The Furys allowing their kids to finish formal education at 11 is in real terms depriving them of such, and if as they've said they had tutors etc for subsequent years, I do wonder if this has translated into actual formal qualifications. Obviously they have lots of money and there will be other income streams eg influencer available to the kids, but they are a rare exception.

Women had a hard, hard fight to get anything like equality of opportunity and not all that long ago, so an expectation of heavily sex based roles involving women aspiring to cleaning and housework after a very young age, childhood, is going to be criticised. It should be. I don't think the boys/young men are actually being done any favours either, unless they are also given real chances to do what they really want and it often takes education to realise what that is.

It absolutely should rise to 18. It should not be legal for an adult to have sex with a child of 16 or 17 as it currently is in the UK.