Mum leaves husband and kids for toyboy she met on 'spiritual' holiday

Daily Record

8 hours ago

Cheryl Thomasgood, now 65, left her husband and three children in the UK to be with a Maasai warrior in Kenya - but she says the relationship was doomed from the start.
A woman who abandoned her husband and three children to start a relationship with a Masai warrior in Kenya has spoken out about her regrets and the emotional impact of that period in her life.
Now 65 and residing peacefully in a coastal town in Somerset, Cheryl Thomasgood has broken her silence more than three decades after her tale garnered global attention, reports the Mirror.
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Her choice to swap her comfortable suburban existence on the Isle of Wight for the remote Samburu region of Kenya in 1994 was motivated, she now admits, by a profound desire for spiritual healing and an escape from personal trauma.
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Cheryl was 34 when she encountered Daniel Lekimencho, a Maasai warrior who performed traditional dances for tourists at the Bamburi Beach Hotel in Mombasa, Kenya.
Captivated by his charm and the appeal of a completely different lifestyle, she ended her marriage to second husband Mike and left their three children behind to begin a new life in Kenya with Daniel, who was ten years her junior.
Cheryl threw herself into Daniel's world - living in a mud hut, cooking on open fires, and embracing aspects of Masai culture, including a diet of cabbage and cow's blood. However as time passed, the stark differences between their backgrounds and expectations started to put pressure on the relationship.
In 1995 the couple made a romantic return to British shores, tying the knot on Valentine's Day in traditional Masai attire and setting up home on the Isle of Wight with Cheryl's children. They later welcomed their daughter Mitsi, now aged 27.
But Cheryl recalls the idyll crumbling rapidly. Daniel allegedly shifted from being a man deeply rooted in spirituality and Masai teachings to one fixated with material gains and social standing.
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Cheryl told MailOnline her deep-seated regrets and how the marriage impacted her children, saying she "felt like I was just a meal ticket" and "I made a huge mistake, and I have a lot of regrets - especially about how it affected my children."
According to Cheryl, Daniel developed an appetite for a more lavish lifestyle, yearning for a grander abode, high-end clothes, and funds to support relatives back in Kenya, leading to frequent disputes and the diminishing of their once spiritual bond.
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Cheryl recounted the rare moments of joy when Daniel would leap around the garden performing his ancestral Masai dance. She said: "He would say that he was getting ready for battle and wanted to jump as high as an elephant. The kids loved it, but it got on my nerves after a while."
Ultimately, Cheryl believes the cultural divide and the struggle to adapt to life in the UK played a part in their separation in 1999, only four years post-marriage and a mere year after Mitsi's birth. She concedes a factor in persisting with the marriage was the desire to defy the doubters.
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When they first met, Cheryl was contending with childhood trauma and stuck in an unhappy marriage. Spurred on by a friend from her church choir, she embarked on a journey to Kenya seeking serenity.
However, she found the relationship with Daniel to be more of an interim respite than an actual resolution.
Cheryl confessed: "The biggest regret of all was the impact on my children. Daniel tried, but he couldn't be the father they needed. They missed out on having a stable male figure."
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These days, Cheryl has reconciled with her past and boasts robust bonds with all four of her offspring: Steve, 43; Tommy, 41; Chloe, 34; and Mitsi, 27. She refers to Mitsi as "the one good thing" to emerge from her involvement with Daniel.
Despite navigating emotional turmoil, Cheryl dismissed any thoughts of walking down the aisle once more. "Three marriages were enough," she declared, denoting them as a "hat-trick of disasters."
The mother imparted a word of caution to those contemplating a holiday romance, warning it might lead to lifelong remorse.
On the other hand, Daniel stayed put in the UK following their split and is currently employed at a supermarket on the Isle of Wight.