Amid a major family grudge, Chris Eubank Jr. is set for a bitter showdown on Saturday night against Conor Benn – but it’s the feud within his own family that he finds ‘painful’.
The 35-year-old was labelled as a “disgrace” for slapping Benn with an egg at an earlier media meeting by his own father Chris Sr, who warned the perilous fight shouldn’t go ahead. Chris, 58, made a name for himself as one of Britain’s most successful boxers, but his life outside the ring has been far more turbulent, particularly when it comes to his fractured relationship with his son.
Outside of boxing, the two-weight world champ is a father to five children – sons Chris Jr., Sebastian, Joseph, and Nathanael, and daughter Emily. He shares four of them with his ex-wife Karron, whom he married in 1990. The pair split in 2005 after 15 years together. His fifth child, Nathanael, is from a previous relationship.
Since retiring from the ring, Eubank has become a familiar face on television. He appeared on the 2015 series of I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!, where he lasted 17 days and finished in ninth place. In April 2023, he returned to screens in Channel 4’s experimental reality series Scared of the Dark.
But behind the public appearances, Eubank has faced heartbreak. His life was turned upside down in July 2021 when his son Sebastian, also a professional boxer, died suddenly at the age of 29 while living in Dubai. Sebastian had just become a father, and his son Raheem was born only 32 days before his death.
In a statement following the devastating loss, Eubank said: “Never did I ever imagine I would write these words or experience the feeling I now have at the loss of my son. He was loved and respected by all who knew him and will be forever in the thoughts of friends and family. As a family, we now kindly ask to be given space and privacy to celebrate his life and remember the son, the brother, the husband, the friend.”
He later opened up about his grief during an emotional appearance on Good Morning Britain, saying: “I can’t tell you how proud I am of this man. He was my son and I loved him. Every moment we spent together was my favourite, but there were so, so many moments I missed when we weren’t together.”
Sebastian’s older brother, Chris Eubank Jr., 35, also paid tribute to him on X (formerly Twitter), writing: “My brother Sebastian Eubank was a special man… a righteous man… who always put others before himself. A man of many talents—boxing, MMA, poetry, music, coaching, cooking—the list goes on. But the most important thing to him was helping others less fortunate than himself.”
In recent years, the pain of loss has spilt into his relationship with Chris Jr., who followed in his father’s footsteps to become a boxer. Their once-close bond has broken down over time, especially after Eubank Jr. removed his father from his entourage ahead of a fight with Conor Benn.
Speaking to The Times, Eubank Sr. explained how the trauma of Sebastian’s death has made him protective of his remaining son. He said, “We have to be strict. Otherwise lives are put in danger and my son’s life cannot be put in danger. I’ve already lost one. It can’t happen again.”
Reflecting on the deep loss of his younger brother, Chris Eubank Jr. spoke candidly about the heartbreak his family continues to face, saying: “I have a brother who is buried in the desert in Dubai – that is pain. I have his son, three years old, he asks: ‘Why can’t I see my daddy? Why can’t he take me to school?’ That is pain.”
Hi pins the tragedy on putting added strain on the family, revealing that his father no longer talks to him. Speaking in October, he said: “We don’t talk, he has shown no interest in my career for a long period of time now. He’s shown no interest in me in a long period of time.
“As somebody who’s lost a son, I think that’s a pretty insane thing [for my dad] to be doing, an insane way to be acting – to kind of not be speaking to your remaining kids. You know what? For a long time, I tried to kind of act like it was cool.
“People would ask me, ‘How’s your dad?’ ‘Yeah, we’re good.’ But I got sick of that s***, man. It’s b******. We’re not cool, we’re not OK, and people need to know.”
The relationship between father and son grew even more strained earlier this year after Eubank Jr. slapped Conor Benn with an egg during a press conference, an incident that prompted Eubank Sr. to publicly call his son a “disgrace.” Reflecting on the rift, Chris Jr. shared, “My own father, a man I’ve idolised for my entire life, doesn’t speak to me. We haven’t spoken for years. These things is what pain is to me.”
Sadly, this wasn’t the first tragedy to shape Eubank’s life. Back in 1991, during a fight with Michael Watson, a final-round uppercut led to a severe brain injury that left Watson in a coma and later partially paralysed. Eubank has since called it the only regret of his career.
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