AS the son and heir of Britain’s billionaire gypsy, Alfie Best Jnr has been surrounded by wealth and opulence for most of his life.
His dad, Alfie Snr, has a billion pound fortune, a £6million mansion, a fleet of supercars, an Aston Martin helicopter, a jet and a yacht.
But for young Alfie, despite having all the trappings of wealth that most of us can only dream of, there was something missing from his life.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun, the jet-setting entrepreneur – who has a £10million fortune – reveals he has now found inner peace after converting to Islam.
The Romany gypsy, 25, who appeared in reality show Absolutely Ascot, believes he is the first traveller to take up the faith and tells how he found Allah after a helicopter trip to Cornwall for lunch.
Alfie – joint 85th in the Rich List for people under 30 with actress Millie Bobby Brown – left school at 12, hired a van and a driver and sold cleaning products to factory bosses.
He bought a nightclub at 16 and sold it a year later. Now he owns two caravan parks and sells eye-wateringly expensive watches to celebs, millionaires and footballers.
We met recently in a café around the corner from his £1.2million fifth-floor Knightsbridge flat overlooking Harrods.
His black £180,000 Bentayga Bentley four-wheel drive was parked nearby.
Alfie was observing the holy month of Ramadan, so did not eat or drink.
I’m unique – I’m the only gypsy who has converted to Islam
Alfie Best Jnr
He studies the Koran, says prayers in Arabic five times a day and visits a mosque at least once a week.
Although he still runs his watch business, Alfie no longer wears gold because it is forbidden by Islam.
Though on his wrist he has a platinum watch that is literally out of this world – encrusted with grains of stone from a space meteorite and is worth £150,000.
Alfie Jnr says: “I’m unique – I’m the only gypsy who has converted to Islam.
“It’s not something I want to hide. Being a traveller I’ve had stigma since being in school and I still get it to this day.
“I’ve dealt with it my whole life and it doesn’t really bother me. If anything it has made me a stronger person.”
The epiphany
His epiphany came last September when he and four friends flew in his dad’s £4.5million Aston Martin helicopter to Cornwall for lunch at a five-star hotel.
One of his pals, who is white and English, had to get back early because his mum was attending the mosque in Lewisham, South London, for The Shahada – declaring her faith in one God, Allah.
Alfie says: “We were going for food afterwards so it was either sit outside in the car or take my shoes off and go into the mosque. My friend cried as his watched his mum take her Shahada.
Something was trying to either contact me or something was trying to reach me
Alfie Best Jnr
“And I felt something I haven’t experienced before in any religious place. As a gypsy, I’ve been in a lot of churches and I believe in God.
“It made my whole body tingle, like this is right for me.
“Something was trying to either contact me or something was trying to reach me.
“It was very, very strange but in a good way. I felt I belonged there.”
Ring to mosque
Alfie – who is also a professional boxer and has two wins out of two fights at super featherweight level – now spends more time at the mosque than the gym.
He began studying the Koran and at Regent’s Park mosque he had his own Shahada.
Alfie also used to sell tickets to boozy traveller parties and boxing matches – but he no longer drinks and is not allowed to promote alcohol.
He says: “I used to love alcohol and I’d drink whatever was on the table.
If I went out for a good night on the drinking it would put me in bed for a week
Alfie Best Jnr
“But if I went out for a good night on the drinking it would put me in bed for a week, which wasn’t good. I don’t have tolerance to alcohol.
“When there’s peer pressure to have a drink it’s very easy just to say ‘yeah’ for an easier life. Now I have a reason to say ‘no’ but people still try to force it on you.
“I have just as good time without it and I didn’t know that I could.”
Dad’s reaction
His tycoon dad, Alfie Snr, was stunned to discover his son had converted to Islam after being brought up as a proud gypsy.
And Alfie Jnr admits that he confessed first to his mum Emily that he wanted to become a Muslim.
He says: “She’s a lot more understanding than my dad. She’s the first person I told before I even took my Shahada because I knew she would not try and pull me one way or the other.
I thought my dad would look at me like I’d gone doolally
Alfie Best Jnr
“I thought my dad would look at me like I’d gone doolally. I let time be the judge and later I asked him ‘do you think it has made me a better person Dad?’
“He said, ‘no, because you weren’t a bad person anyway but it has enhanced you as a person’, which I think was a beautiful and brilliant way to explain it.”
Dad Alfie Snr, 52, says: “I am sure in becoming a Muslim he will face further challenges but due to his background I know he has the strength to deal with the haters.”
Studies
Young Alfie studies the Koran in English every day and prays at a mosque in whatever town he happens to be in on Fridays.
He says: “I’m a student and learning as I go. There’s so much that I don’t know.
“The prayers are in Arabic. I have got a job to speak English. The brothers at the mosque help me.”
Alfie believes his new religion has helped him tackle a nagging anxiety that he was not achieving enough success.
He says: “Before I’d be torturing myself thinking ‘why haven’t I done this? Why hasn’t that gone right?
“Now when these sorts of things come up against me, I say to myself, well I’m alive and my family is healthy, we’ve got food on the table to eat every day. Things seem to be so much better when I live life like it is a blessing.”
