Eddie Hearn lifts lid on rarely-seen sister who is the ‘secret star’ of the business
EDDIE Hearn has praised his rarely-seen sister as the “secret star” of his dad’s billion pound sports empire.
But despite Katie’s key role at Matchroom, she won’t be seen by Netflix viewers on the family’s new docuseries, Matchroom: The Greatest Showmen.
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Explaining why to The Sun, Eddie said: “My sister has no interest in the limelight.
“We are chalk and cheese in so many ways.
“She was an A-star student, I really wasn’t and when we did the deal with Netflix they were like, ‘oh and we’ll see your sister as well?’
“But she’s in the office all the time, hiding every time the cameras come in.
“I definitely took the extrovert side out of us.”
Eddie still backs himself as dad Barry’s favourite as he prepares to take over the business.
But Katie is a key player behind the scenes – with 40 years of experience in producing and globally distributing live sporting events.
Since becoming the first female to work on the Premiership and International production team at Sky Sports, Katie is now Director of Programming and CEO of Matchroom Media.
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Eddie added: “Katie’s a massive part of the business. She runs all the TV production and she’s a little bit of a kind secret star.
“She’s very talented, but she wouldn’t tell you how talented she is. I’m not very talented, but I’ll tell you how talented I am.”
Eddie also opened up about the decision not to include his wife and kids in the TV series that shot straight to the top of Netflix’s charts.
“It was mainly for the children,” he says.
“They already get a load of stick really through being my daughters. I’ve got two daughters and I want them to be able to live as normal a life as possible without someone having a preconceived perception of who they are or what they might be.
“It’s not like they’re hidden away, but I’ve seen some other documentaries where the kids are there and I just feel like it’s a huge amount of pressure, especially at that age, 13 and 15.”
It hasn’t stopped his kids from giving their opinions about his performance on the show.
Eddie laughed: “My eldest is watching the series and her first comment was ‘yeah, it’s good, but you lose a lot in it’.
“But that’s the real part of it. In an ideal world, AJ would have beat Dubois. We would have won the 5v5, but that wouldn’t be a great show.
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“I think it’s good for them to understand as well that it’s not just you go to work, you win, you make money, you go to work, you lose, you have bad days. You have a lot of pressure.”
Asked whether they’re likely to join the family business once he takes the top spot, Eddie added: “I’ve always said no to the thought of my daughters joining the business but as they get a little bit older, I think if they have a passion for it then why not.
“When I left school, I didn’t want to work for my dad. Everyone said to me growing up, ‘well, you’re just going to work for your dad anyway’.
“I thought no, I’m going to go out and I’m going to do my own thing and I did for probably four or five years, but then realised I’m putting all this energy and time into someone else’s company instead of putting that into what my dad built.
“Suddenly it felt like my role and responsibility was to carry on what was important to him.
“So, yeah, if they have a passion for it, then I wouldn’t stop them. But maybe not boxing. I’ll probably keep them away from boxing…”
