Tommy Fury downed 20 beers a day but he admits he never thought he could die
Tommy Fury has said he couldn't stop drinking in his darkest moments of alcohol addiction.
Some of his lowest moments play out in his new BBC documentary series Tommy: The Good, The Bad and The Fury. The star pulled all the punches to get his life back on track as he was filmed getting back into the boxing ring.
When Yahoo UK asked if he was ever concerned he would die, Fury said: "Oh, you don't really think like that at that time. If you did, you wouldn't carry on doing it.
"But no, it's not a thought that you think. You're just going down this path and you can't really get off it just like that. So it's a difficult road to go down, but you guys are gonna come along with me and see that."
In the BBC documentary, he revealed the scale of the problem: "20 shots a night, 20 beers, every day, I would have a drink, I used to drink to get blackout drunk."
Molly-Mae Hague, the mother of his daughter Bambi, ended their engagement in August 2024 over his alcohol addiction. Fury won his family back in the New Year after making some life changes.
Tommy Fury's relationship with alcohol now
The boxer isn't sober, but he has changed his relationship with alcohol. He told Yahoo UK and other press: "Drinking is not on my mind. I've had enough drink to last me a lifetime in 2024."
Outlining the situations where he might drink, he said: "Going forward, if it's a wedding — or something like that — I might have a couple of drinks, but from where I've come from, and from where I've been, there's drinking and then there's drinking. Drinking four or five times a week is something nobody should be doing.
"When I look at that person from back there, I don't even recognise that guy, it's just not me. Back then, I didn't really care about anything. I was letting the world go by, wasn't bothered, and that's just not me.
"I've always kept myself in tip-top condition. I'm an athlete, I'm a fighter. I want to strive for the best. I want to be the best. That's my mindset, and then I just lost it down that stretch.
"So it's like looking at a different person. But now I'm able to go to an occasion and be normal. And that's the best feeling that I can have, especially from where I've come from with my relationship with alcohol. Now I can be around it, have a couple of drinks, just be normal. Whereas before that was never in sight."
When the drinking started
Injuring his hand in the boxing ring in 2019 was the start of his spiralling relationship with alcohol. It was hard for Fury to hear that he couldn't use his hand for 12 to 18 months.
"When you can't even shower, or wash yourself properly because my hand is in a cast, and when it come out of a cast, I couldn't move it from past there, there's not a lot I could do," he said.
"I was in pain with it a lot of times and then suddenly one day you find that all you could do is sit down and a few of them [drinks], it takes the pain away. You forget where you are, you forget what's going on, and sometimes you're on that feeling all the time. And that's where obviously it starts.
"You'll see the highs and lows and everything that I've gone through in this documentary, that's why it's going to let people in to see that. You should never bottle anything up."
Tommy: The Good, The Bad and The Fury series
One of the reasons Fury has let the cameras into his life and bared all is to help others. "If I can help one person or if I can help 100,000 people, it's great."
Letting people film a fly-on-the-wall documentary in your home is a big decision. The sportsman wasn't sure how he was going to react initially, but there was one thing he was certain of: It captures all aspects of his life from boxing, to being a dad and winning Hague back.
He said: "I thought, do you know what, if I'm gonna do it, I'm not gonna hold anything back, 'cause I'm that type of guy. I'm 110% or nothing. I'm not gonna make a documentary on my life and put on a front and hide things from the public.
"If I'm making a documentary on myself, I'm gonna be 100% real with everybody, and I just let go about feeling any sort of way about anything. As you'll see, I've held nothing back; everything's raw and everything's out there."
The reality star shared he is happy with the final edit of the series airing on 19 August.
He said, "How I've come across is just me. Every day, what you guys are gonna see in the documentary is just who I am. I've not put on a front. I've never done that, even going into Love Island.
"I've always said that from day one, I'm always gonna be myself, and if you like me, you like me, if you don't, you don't. What you guys are gonna see is just me at my rawest."
Watch Part 1 of Tommy: The Good. The Bad. The Fury. on BBC iPlayer and BBC Three on Tuesday 19 August
If you want to understand your relationship with alcohol better, try drinkaware's Drinking Check — it takes just three minutes.
If you think your alcohol consumption may be problematic, there are plenty of ways you can access support.
If you think you need help with your alcohol consumption, you can get in touch with the free national alcohol helpline Drinkline at 0300 123 1110, or contact Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) here.
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