Joe Wicks: ‘We had a chaotic childhood — Dad was a heroin addict'
I'm one of three boys. Mum met my dad and had Nikki at 17, me 18 months later, then my brother George ten years after that. We grew up in Epsom, Surrey, in a chaotic home. Both my parents suffered with poor mental health: Dad was a heroin addict and Mum had eating disorders and OCD. It was quite unstable.
Nikki and I are both emotional but we have different personalities — I'm quite reactive and impulsive, while Nikki is calmer, more considered. He's very sensitive and really caring. If anything happens in my life he's my first port of call aside from my wife, Rosie.
When we were teenagers we argued a lot. There were times I'd irritate him or grass him up for coming home late. But when Nikki was 18 he spent the summer working in the States, supervising students at Camp America. I really missed him. When he came back our arguing and annoying each other had dissipated. We realised we were brothers and we needed each other. From that point we had a strong bond.
Saying that, we did have a huge row in 2009. It was on a cycling trip from Madrid to Barcelona, over a lilo I'd got for Nikki to sleep on. It wasn't a punching fight but I was on top and we were just screaming. He went off to ring Mum; I was ringing her too. It was a pivotal moment because we got all that childish aggression out. I've never raised my voice or been angry like that since. We might have a little row on the phone if I feel like my ideas get shot down, but we don't hold grudges.
• Joe Wicks: 'I would have turned to drugs without exercise'
My first connection with fitness and dealing with stress was when I was about nine. Rather than get angry and bottle things up, I thought I'd run around instead, do a karate club, anything. It was an instant shift. It calmed me down and gave me something to focus on.
In 2012 I did a personal training course. I borrowed £2,000 off my mum, then my dad lent me £1,500 to get my equipment. I did my first fitness boot camp in Richmond — it was friends, family and one other person who didn't come back. I had a bike and trailer and would cycle there, five miles from home. I thought, 'If I can have boot camps in Surbiton, Cobham and Clapham and a few trainers working for me, that would be wonderful.' That was as far as my vision went.
It was weeks before it got any traction. I remember sitting on the carpet one day and I burst into tears. I said, 'Dad, no one came — I'm never going to pay that money back.' Nikki could see I was deflated. It would be seven in the morning, pissing with rain, I'd just walked in the house and he would be, like, 'Did anyone turn up today?' He could see how hard it was for me.
Nikki was working on a magazine in Singapore in 2014 when I started to take off on social media. I asked if he'd come back and help me. He had reservations about mixing business and family, but he came home and became my social media manager. Now he's my manager, agent and CEO. He's an amazing leader. I trust him with my life and he has given me the freedom to do what I love and be with Rosie and our children, Indie, six, Marley, five, Leni, two, and Dusty, one.
We're really proud we're self-funded — and we've got to this point because we've worked hard. In the year after the first lockdown began in March 2020, my YouTube channel PE with Joe got 100 million views globally. We still get two million views a month.
• Joe Wicks: Anti-obesity drugs are a temporary fix
I had no idea I was going to build this big brand, but we've done it together as brothers. Nikki asks me the questions no one else is asking. Hand on heart, half the success you see is me, half is Nikki.
Joe and I have such different memories of childhood. It's almost like two different lives. Joe was wild and fearless, while I was anxious and scared of everything. I used to think the police were going to come and take us away. I was very aware of what was going on with our parents but I don't think Joe was. When he did the BBC documentary Joe Wicks: Facing My Childhood, that was the first time he'd spent proper time thinking back. But I understood when I was young that my dad had problems with addiction. I'd know instantly if he'd used and would try not to let Mum find out. I'm 41 now and realise I took on the role of protecting everyone.
As kids Joe and I were inseparable. We were both naughty and we had no boundaries. We'd play 'knock down ginger', go out at eight o'clock in the morning and come back at eight o'clock at night. We had the same friends and all the same things, but in different colours — we were obsessed with the Ninja Turtles. And we fought constantly. I've got two boys and I've realised being together and fighting is weirdly a sign of closeness. At Camp America I really missed Joe. When I came back it was like a switch had been flipped.
We lived with Dad in his flat for a while. I was working as a journalist on the London Olympics and Joe was doing his boot camps, and he would come home at 7am as I was getting up. I remember feeling sad for him when he said no one came. We were on a bike ride one evening when he said he'd thought of a name for his business: the Body Coach. I said, 'I love it.'
• Joe Wicks: I've taken my five-year-old out of school
When he asked me to come and help him, the question in my head was: if I don't, will he end up with someone who takes advantage? I told him I'd do the thing I'm good at, which is content — we'd set up a blog and a YouTube channel. My plan was to have my own content agency; but I never had time for any other clients. I say I'm an accidental CEO. We were building a tech team for the app and someone asked who they should report to. I told Joe, I think I need to be the CEO as people want to know who's running the company.
We're both bad at acknowledging the impact of things we've done. When we did the HIIT workout world record in Hyde Park in 2017, almost 4,000 people came. I cried; his boot camps with no one there felt so recent.
People would tell Mum, 'Your kids are going to end up in all sorts of trouble.' Even now it's a shock that Joe and I have been successful together. We've built this whole thing on our instincts. I was in his ear during PE with Joe, doing shout-outs and making sure the camera didn't cut out. He says his MBE is half mine, but I don't feel that.
Joe never wanted to be famous. I think being a dad has changed him more. It's 13 years since he started and he is still talking about the same things he'd have said at his first boot camps.The Joe Wicks Festival at Kew is on July 6; kew.org. For more information, visit thebodycoach.com
Joe on NikkiNikki is unnaturally grumpy in the morning. I've learnt not to speak to him or make eye contact until he has downed his coffee
Nikki on JoeJoe is annoyingly energised in the mornings. When we travel together he tries to get me up at 6am for a workout
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
34 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Young country diary: An explosion of emerald butterflies
It was late morning, and my family and I were walking along the coast of south Devon. The sun blazed in the clear sky, and a green carpet of grass was interspersed with violets, bluebells and sea campions. Seals basked in the morning sunshine below us and the occasional bloody-nosed beetle lumbered across the path. It wasn't long before we got our first glimpse of a green hairstreak butterfly. It had emerald wings and black and white antennae. It was so delicate, it looked as if it was made of porcelain. My mum said it was a rare sight, as she had only ever seen three before in her life and although they're widespread across Britain, they're hard to spot. Unfortunately, their population is declining, partly due to habitat loss. But further on, we saw another, its wings glinting in the sunlight and the flower it was perched on nodding gently in the breeze. We continued to see the green wonders darting about, occasionally settling on a clump of prickly gorse. By the end of the walk, my legs were burning from the steep ascent, and we had encountered perhaps about 50 of them. My mum said we probably wouldn't see anything like it again. They must have just hatched, because there were so many, and there was a lot of gorse around, which is one of their caterpillar food-plants. I wonder if, when we go back next year, we'll find some more of those magical creatures. Read today's other YCD, by Issy, 11: 'Looking into the big eyes of a brown hare' To submit an article for consideration in Young Country Diary, please fill out the form here (or, if that does not work, as has been the case recently, try the form here). The deadline for submissions is Monday 30 June
The Guardian
38 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Young country diary: Staring into the big eyes of a brown hare
Each time I see a brown hare, I'm usually in a car and worried it'll get knocked down, but recently I almost stood on one. I was walking through the grass in my wellies one morning when I saw a pair of big, brown eyes peering up at me. The body didn't move, and I've since found out that hares freeze when they sense danger. Its ears were long, velvety, folded straight down behind its head, reaching its bony shoulders. I couldn't see its legs but I knew they were strong and long … Suddenly it bolted, showing me just how fast its legs could go. I tried to chase it but couldn't keep up, not in wellies. They can reach up to 45 miles per hour. The long grass parted ahead of me as her body rocked like my old hobby horse, zig-zagging through the meadow. I wish I could have touched him or her. I bet its fur would be warm and silky against my hand. It ended up on the hill, its rounded back black against the sun and those ears, alert now, pointing like fingers to the sky. I think she was a doe (a female) as they are bigger than the bucks (the males) and sometimes punch them when they're angry, especially in breeding season from spring until summer. Yes, I think she's definitely a female and my new best 11 Read today's other YCD, by Joscelyn, 10: 'An explosion of emerald butterflies' To submit an article for consideration in Young Country Diary, please fill out the form here (or, if that does not work, as has been the case recently, try the form here). The deadline for submissions is Monday 30 June
Telegraph
39 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Network Rail ‘wrongly' felled 300 trees
'Cowboy' Network Rail workers unnecessarily felled more than 300 healthy trees in a valley in Derbyshire, an analysis of its own figures suggests. Dozens of contractors are accused of spoiling the area around the village of Higham, near the Peak District, by chopping down oak and ash trees during bird nesting season. According to a vegetation management plan outlined to residents, the government-controlled company – which is responsible for maintaining lines across Britain – was seeking to 'remove or reduce trees and vegetation that could disrupt railway operations '. It laid out plans to 'clear all vegetation within 6.5 metres of the tracks', removing 648 trees between the settlements of South Wingfield and Clay Cross. The company said it would 'prune or remove' any trees further away that 'posed a risk'. However, analysis by The Telegraph of the company's data found that 433 of the trees felled – more than two-thirds of the total – were more than 6.5 metres away from the line. Around 22 per cent of those trees would likely have needed felling under national guidelines for dealing with ash dieback disease, suggesting the remaining 336 were cut down unnecessarily. It comes after distraught residents accused Network Rail of a 'scorched earth operation' which had left the countryside stripped bare. People living nearby said they had woken to find stacked piles of trunks and branches – containing nests to which birds still returned – following overnight weekend works. Cllr Heather Liggett said it had devastated a unique area of greenery which had been untouched ever since the railway line was built in 1840. 'There seems to be one law for them and another for the rest of us,' she said. She pointed out how a local golf club was refused permission to trim back an overgrown footpath because it was bird nesting season, leaving members of the public at risk from golf balls. Branding the Network Rail workers 'cowboys', Cllr Liggett added: 'Where is the law when it comes to these people? The community has been treated diabolically. 'To go felling trees at midnight; you are not going to know what [birds are] nesting. It's deplorable.' Sarah McRow obtained the Network Rail data through a freedom of information (FOI) request and suspects it ploughed ahead with clearing the vegetation to ready the line for electrification. The 56-year-old, who co-owns a nearby alpaca farm, said: 'It's completely brazen. They are absolutely doing this to bypass all the stringent ecological rules if they went down the electrification line. 'They've just gone hell for leather to take as much down as they possibly can... everyone has kicked up a fuss. You can't stick a tree back up once it's been felled. It's just outrageous what they are doing.' A report from the Tree Council, a charity, found oak trees had been felled 'which could have been retained' in what it described as a 'slash and burn' approach. In Network Rail's FOI response, an unnamed senior engineer said: 'Through climate change, our weather is becoming more extreme every year and this risk is growing. 'Whilst the vegetation has grown in this location for some time, the year-on-year increased risk this creates means we must action. 'We acknowledge that it's not ideal to start this work in bird nesting season. However, if we were to wait, we'd have to carry more of the risks through another autumn and winter storm season, which isn't tolerable.' Network Rail did not explain why hundreds of trees more than 6.5 metres away had been chopped down. A spokesman said: 'We have received the Tree Council's report about our work in this area. 'We take their recommendations seriously. We will review their report thoroughly and develop a detailed response in due course.'
