Matthew Robert Haynes was born into an Irish and Barbadian family in North London. Haynes, who later acquired the nickname ‘Haynzy’ from friends and family, was a self-described ‘cheeky’ child, and was very curious and inquisitive by nature, ‘I was always talking and forever asking questions. [I was] annoying and cheeky, but in a cute mixed-race curly-haired way!