The sun is setting on Cannes, but in the Old Port there’s a bright line shining from a multi-million-pound superyacht – it belongs to Britain’s richest gypsy Alfie Best.
The red carpet was rolled out for Alfie, 53, at the premiere of his film Gypsy Billionaire, and his friends and family were out in full force for the occasion.
The film is Alfie’s rags to riches tale, and it tells how he changed the course of his destiny from his birth on the side of a road near Leicester – to a businessman worth £1 billion.
‘It feels surreal,’ he says after watching the documentary. ‘If someone had told me that I would be sitting here watching a documentary about myself at the Cannes Film Festival – I would have said “no”.
‘Am I surprised and humbled – no? I’m shocked. I shed a tear while watching it.’
The red carpet was rolled out for Alfie Best, 53, at the premiere of his film Gypsy Billionaire, and his friends and family were out in full force for the occasion. Picture: Valentina Catenacci
The film is Alfie’s rags to riches tale, and it tells how he changed the course of his destiny from his birth on the side of a road near Leicester – to a businessman worth £1 billion. . Picture: Valentina Catenacci
The father-of-two says he was initially hesitant to bring his life story onto the big screen but was convinced by the documentary’s director Joel Van der Molen.
‘Joel approached me to make it and when he first came to see me the answer was no and the reason it was no is I felt it was self-conceited. What he explained to me is “if you can’t show that it can be done no one will ever see that it is done.”
‘He referred me to a number of Black entrepreneurs and he said “They have never embraced how they got there, most of them are supported by their own people.”‘
While The Gypsy Billionaire is an open book of Alfie’s trials and triumphs, the documentary doesn’t feature his beloved and elusive second wife Emily Jane Bruce.
This is in the wake of death threats the family has received due to his high profile in the limelight.
Alfie Best, the UK’s richest gypsy who is thought to be worth nearly £1 billion, reveals in the film Billionaire Gypsy that his school days were difficult
Alfie (pictured as a child) reveals in the film he suffered discrimination at school because he was a traveller
‘My wife hates any type of media because as Gypsies it comes with a lot of distasteful poison pen letters so because of that she doesn’t deal with any media,’ says Alfie, who lives in £6 million mansion in Surrey.
‘When we did the documentary Big Fat Gypsy Fortune – we had our gates sprayed and they didn’t do a good job of them. You’re never going to stop people’s own demons and if someone is putting you down it’s because they are insufficient for themselves not because you’ve got a problem because you don’t even know them,’ he says defiantly.
His daughter Elizabeth, 27, features in the documentary and she displays the shrewd business acumen of her father and Alfie banks on her continuing his legacy when it’s all said and done.
She currently works as a park manager for Wyldecrest Parks, in Windsor.
‘You have to support broad shoulders – it’s taken Elizabeth a long time to come round – it hasn’t been an easy ride,’ he says.
Meanwhile, Alfie’s son – Alfie Best Jnr Jr appeared in the reality show My Big Fat Gypsy Fortune on Channel 4, as well as ITV’s Absolutely Ascot.
Alfie reveals his pride for his daughter Elizabeth and says she did not walk ‘straight into a boardroom seat’ but worked her way up to where she is
The 25-year-old, heir to the family fortune, regularly shares snaps of his expensive cars and luxury lifestyle with his 127,000 Instagram followers.
Like most parents, Alfie, who has previously had brushes with death, wants his children to steer clear of negative influences.
‘Bad people are bad people with bad thoughts and bad intentions and that’s the only thing I would want my children to stay away from. Good people create good situations and good situations create good lives and good lives create good legacies and good legacies create history.’
The stats for Alfie’s successful property business speaks for itself as Wyldecrest Parks operates 91 mobile home parks across the UK and is worth £700 million.
However, being an unlikely TV star in the making is something Alfie has slowly come to terms with.
‘It was extremely difficult having the cameras follow me about for the first three months,’ he says. ‘It was a year in total and there was an awful lot of footage that wasn’t actually featured in the documentary.
‘I had no editing rights but that’s how I would have wanted it because if there’s anything that I’ve done that people don’t like, I don’t apologise. The reason I don’t apologise is because I always did it with a good heart.’
He adds: ‘It ended up feeling like a reality tv show for the first three months, as you’re watching everything you’re saying then after that you forget and think “sod this” and that’s why they started filming me in places such as in the bathroom. The only bits I didn’t want on camera is when I was having a wee because I haven’t got much to brag about.’
However, the TV bigwigs must think he has something to brag about as he reveals: ‘We’ve already been asked if we would like to do a TV series and that we’ll consider.
‘I’m not an actor or a TV personality I’m just a person that is in the mobile home park sector and has been blessed enough to change people’s lives.’
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk