Amir Khan has revealed he now deeply regrets accusing Anthony Joshua of having an affair with his wife and losing a good friend – admitting his fellow boxer had done nothing wrong.
Khan said he was going through various problems in his personal life when he just ‘flipped’ and overreacted to seeing a harmless message from the heavyweight fighter to his wife Faryal Makhdoom.
Bolton fighter, Khan sparked a sensation when he tweeted in 2017 to say he was getting a divorce and accusing his wife of being a ‘golddigger’, writing: “So me and the wife Faryal have agreed to split. I’m currently in Dubai. Wish her all the best. Faryal moved on quickly. Always mentioned to me how much she wanted to be with another guy, from all people another boxer @AnthonyFJoshua.”
But now Khan has admitted to Gary Neville on the former Manchester United footballer’s Overlap podcast it was a terrible mistake that he still can’t understand.
Khan, 35, said: “I was in the papers for crazy stuff – messing about with women, chilling out with this girl, chilling out with that girl. I was going through a bit of a mad time myself. I wanted to leave my wife then.
“I had the problem with Anthony Joshua which I feel really bad for because at the end of the day I put him in the firing line for no reason.
“I mean he was a friend of mine and since then we’ve never spoken.“So I lost a good friend through that as well.”
Asked if it still gets to him, he replied: ‘Yeah. The guy did nothing wrong and I kind of stuck it on him really.”
Asked if he knows now why he did it, he said: “No. What happened was, my wife – her and I were not talking – and she sent a message saying, “Look at so many fighters messaging me.”
“And because she showed me a message of Anthony Joshua saying hi to her or something, I lost it.
“I said “Who the hell’s he, saying hi to my wife”, even though he was cool with me.”