Renowned British boxer Anthony Joshua has shed light on his decision to continue living with his mother at the age of 34.
Despite earning an estimated £15 million following his victory over Wladimir Klitschko in 2017, Joshua resides in his mother’s two-bedroom ex-council flat and remains adamant that a future partner would have a challenging time convincing him to move out.
In an interview with Louis Theroux, Joshua, a two-time world champion who clinched a victory over Robert Helenius in August and is gearing up for his next fight in 2024, discussed his close-knit family ties and warned future girlfriends they’d need to compete with his mom, Yeta Odusanya. ‘I still live with my mom,’ the champion told the BBC.
He revealed, ‘In our culture, we grew up in our own family home, we support our parents. ‘Why am I going to move out and leave my mum by herself, for some girl? Family is the most important thing. ‘When a girl gets with me, she ain’t just marrying me, she’s marrying my family.’
While Joshua is not publicly in a relationship at the moment, he shared that he prefers to keep his personal life private, primarily due to the pressures associated with his public image. He expressed his concern about the expectations people have of him and how they can lead to undue scrutiny.
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He stated, “Are we going to dissect everything I say and use it as a narrative to create a story? That’s why I keep myself to myself. You put all this pressure on yourself to come and be this big star and be perfect. I’m telling you, they’ll pull you down. The higher you are, the bigger the drop.”
Joshua was previously in an on-off relationship with the mother of his child, former school friend Nicole Osbourne, whom he once bought a £500,000 flat not far from his home.