Amir Khan and pregnant wife Faryal Makhdoom blame ‘lack of communication’ for public marriage breakdown
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Their marriage went through a very public breakdown earlier this year, with Amir Khan announcing he was divorcing pregnant wife Faryal Makhdoom.
But following on from the pair’s reunion shortly after, the couple have now revealed that it was a ‘lack of communication’ that caused their issues.
Speaking on Loose Women on Tuesday, the 31-year-old boxer and his make-up artist wife, 26, say being in different countries at the time of the issue exacerbated the problem.
Asked by panelist Jane Moore whether they’d like to put their ‘tricky’ 2017 behind them, Amir responded: ‘You want to change things at times, the way it went public wasn’t nice… anger sometimes takes over.
‘That happened in 2017. Hopefully going into 2018 we’ve both put that behind us, we’ve got a lovely baby coming this year, we have also have Lamaisah our daughter, my boxing career, [I will] get some good fights in…’.
He added: ‘What went wrong? A lack of communication.’
Faryal – who’s six months pregnant with the couple’s second child – said: ‘It was just a misunderstanding. I was in England (and) he was in Dubai, he thought he was a bit cool in Dubai doing some tweets…’.
Amir – who appeared on I’m A Celebrity earlier this year – admitted that a hand injury contributed to his negative mindset at the time.
He confessed: ‘Going through the hand injury that I had, not being in the boxing ring, being away from my family, going through a lot of stuff in my life, I think the best place for me is to be in the boxing ring.
‘When I was away from that, it took me all over the place. I lost that focus and that structure. Not being in the gym, not training, when you have all that downtime you have all that energy in your body…’.
Asked if he had a defining moment that encouraged him to make a change, Amir said: ‘My family were very supportive, my parents, they helped me when I said I don’t know what to do.
‘I came to a stage where I didn’t know what to do with my life. I was wrecking my marriage, I wasn’t boxing, I had a hand injury, I didn’t know where to go, what to do…
‘I started praying. That’s one of the [things that] put me on the right path.’
He added that appearing on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! helped save their marriage as it took him away from the drama back home.
He revealed: ‘Going to the jungle definitely helped. For me it was good to get away, it was a detox for me.
‘I didn’t watch the show before I went on. If I’d have seen it before I wouldn’t have gone on it.
‘Now people have seen the real side of me. I’m a scaredy cat!’
More: I'm A Celebrity
Opening up about ‘Strawberry-gate’ – in which he ate the dingo dollar prize of strawberries alongside campmate Iain Lee – he joked that he was ‘annoyed’ at Iain for confessing straight away.
He told the panel: ‘I didn’t say it was all Iain’s fault. My teammates really looked up to me. There was something about being young…
‘Iain did say that he would do it again. I like Iain and there’s no beef between us at all.
‘Looking back at it now it’s something to laugh about. The reason I got annoyed with Iain is because we told them straight away.
‘If we’d have told them after dinner they’d have been like “oh it’s alright”.’
Make-up artist Faryal also opened up about her difficult second pregnancy, following the birth of the couple’s first child Lamaisah in 2015.
She revealed of her pregnancy: ‘It’s been OK. Not bad. I think my first child was easier but this pregnancy was tougher.
‘I have a pelvic problem – public dysfunction (disorder). It’s difficult to get up sometimes. Amir helps me get up.
‘My daughter was 8lbs – I carry big babies!’
So what are they going to do to make sure they don’t air any of their grievances in public in 2018? Well, talk for a start!
Faryal said: ‘We’ve been married for four years, we’ve been with each other for six/ seven years… we’ve never had problems because we always communicate.’
Amir joked: ‘(It) feels longer, trust me…. In a good way. I’ve started again…’.
Loose Women airs 12.30pm weekdays on ITV.
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