Anil Bhoyrul has admitted that sending his three children to school in Bolivia to teach them the value of money had the opposite effect. The former Daily Mirror business journalist said they returned to Dubai and quickly resumed their consumerist habits.
Bhoyrul, now 60, moved to South America with his Slovenian photographer wife, Branka, after becoming concerned that their children were growing up too focused on wealth and possessions.
The family spent two years in La Paz from 2018, after the children chose Bolivia by throwing plastic darts at a map. Bhoyrul hoped that life in one of South America’s poorest countries would give Evita, Joe and Savannah a different perspective.
Instead, he said, the experience had little lasting impact once they returned to Dubai.
“They were meant to learn the value of money and not get carried away,” Bhoyrul said at the London launch of his new book, Men’s Guide to Pregnancy.
“It didn’t work. They came back after six years, and within ten seconds their view was, ‘I’ve done my time. Where’s the iPhone? We’re never going back’.”
Bhoyrul and Branka had previously lived in a 5,000-square-foot villa in Dubai for eight years. They became concerned about their children’s attitude to money after incidents including their demand for separate technology and their reaction to a family holiday.
“One iPad wasn’t good enough, they needed three,” Bhoyrul previously said. “My son wanted an iPhone and an Apple Watch, just like the ones his pals at school had.”
When Bhoyrul turned 50, he surprised the family with business-class tickets to the Maldives. He recalled that the children complained on the journey home because they had to travel in economy.
Life in Bolivia involved school journeys through the Amazon rainforest and time spent outdoors. Evita undertook the 46km Death Road mountain-bike challenge for her eighth birthday, while Joe had what his father described as his first paid job, selling ice cream.
But Bhoyrul said his daughter Savannah, now 13, had since embraced designer fashion. “They’ve totally gone the other way now, and my daughter spends a fortune,” he said. “At just 13 years old, she’s got all this designer gear.”
“I wouldn’t advise parents to ship their kids off,” he added.
Bhoyrul left Britain after pleading guilty to conspiracy to breach the Financial Services Act 1986 over the Daily Mirror’s “City Slickers” share-tipping scandal.
Between 1999 and 2000, he and fellow columnist James Hipwell bought shares in low-priced dotcom-era companies before recommending them to readers, then sold their own holdings when the prices rose. Bhoyrul completed 180 hours of community service in 2006.
His new book documents the nine months before the birth of his son Joe and is billed as a guide for expectant fathers. It is due to be published in the UK on October 1 by Myrtle Press.
Guests at the launch included Bhoyrul’s former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan and broadcaster Andrew Neil. Savannah also gave a speech, joking that she had only read the “front and back” of her father’s book and had come to London for Blank Street coffee and matcha.
