AFIE Best is a self-made business tycoon and the wealthiest Romani gypsy in the UK.
Here we take a look at his life, family and net worth.
James Bailey 2020Alfie Best has said he hopes to become the world’s first gypsy billionaire[/caption]
Who is Alfie Best?
Alfie Best describes himself as an “old-school, blood and blisters businessman”.
He did not start his life in immense wealth and was born into a Romani gypsy family.
Alfie was born in a caravan beside a road near Leicester on April 12, 1970.
By the age of 10 he had started work — selling Tarmac door-to-door with his dad.
He was a car dealer when he was 17, moving on to selling vans before and mobile phones.
Alfie is now the chairman of Wyldecrest Parks — the largest holiday and residential park company in Europe.
The company has 16,000 residents on 91 sites in the UK, Europe and the US and employs 380 people.
On top of his holiday property empire, Alfie is also the owner of non-league East Thurrock United, which he bought when the semi-pro football club ran into financial trouble during Covid.
He said: “As a gypsy I had no choice but to start from the ground up with virtually nothing in the bank and not much more in my back pocket.
“I took note of the wise words of the great American businessman Warren Buffett who famously said, ‘An idiot with a plan can beat a genius without a plan’.”
Alfie featured in the 2019 movie Once Upon a Time in London as Electric Alfie.
In 2021, he released his first autobiographical book, Can Anyone Build A Property Empire? Yes!.
The same year Alfie also starred in the ITV series Undercover Big Boss.
In February 2024, a documentary about his life, Gypsy Billionaire, was No.1 in Amazon Prime’s European chart — beating Taylor Swift’s Eras World Tour and Tom Cruise’s Lights, Camera, Action.
What is Alfie Best’s net worth?
As of April 2024, Alfie’s empire is reportedly worth around £1.2billion.
He has an estimated personal wealth of roughly £745million.
Alfie made the decision to leave the UK and live as a tax exile in Monaco in April 2024.
Before moving, he went on a selling spree, selling off eight supercars worth millions and his £4.5million seven-seater Airbus ACH130 helicopter, styled by Aston Martin, which boasts the production number 007 and registration G-YPSE on the fuselage.
Alfie is renting a two-bedroom apartment in Monaco overlooking the famous Formula One course until he gets residency in the millionaires’ playground, where residents don’t pay tax.
Is Alfie Best married and does he have children?
Alfie is happily married to his second wife Emily Jane Bruce.
Little is known about her, or Alfie’s first wife Rachel.
But Emily is said to have encouraged her husband to use his knowledge of growing up in caravans to buy a £1.7million mobile home park.
Alfie has two children — Elizabeth and Alfie Junior.
Alfie Best Jnr posing in front of his Bentley
His son starred alongside him in the Channel 4 reality show My Big Fat Gypsy Fortune (2013).
The 26-year-old, who is heir to the family fortune, also featured in ITV’s Absolutely Ascot.
He bought a nightclub at 16 and sold it a year later, going on to own two caravan parks and sell eye-wateringly expensive watches to celebs, millionaires and footballers.
He now regularly shares snaps of his expensive cars and luxury lifestyle with his 191,000 Instagram followers.
Alfie Sr’s daughter Elizabeth is a park manager for Wlydecrest Parks.
Elizabeth Best with her father Alfie
She left school when she was just 11, but later attended a design class at Chelsea and Kensington College.
Wyldecrest Parks has around 101 sites and Elizabeth manages the park in Windsor.
Alfie also has a son-in-law, Matthew Newland, who attacked him with a machete in a car park in 2016.