'I left my family for Egyptian husband - bombshell question ruined everything'

A stay-at-home mum who upended her entire life for her lived to regret her decision after it suddenly went 'downhill' with her younger lover, with whom she had made a fresh start.

met Ahmed through a hotel worker during a family holiday to in August 2016 and, after he added her on , a friendship began, which ultimately blossomed into an online romance. Although the 53-year-old had enjoyed her two-week holiday, she couldn't help but feel "lonely" as she returned to Lincoln.

Peter, her husband of 15 years, was a "good man" and a "brilliant father" but she felt their marriage had gone "stale". According to Julia, it felt as though she and Peter were only really staying together for their kids, James, now 34, Melissa, 21, and Amelia, 18. And so, when she and Ahmed began messaging in October 2016, she felt she'd found somebody to confide in.

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Things started to get serious when Ahmed, 35, suggested they chat via video call. Julia told: "It was great to see his face – he was friendly and smiley. From then, we video-called two to three times a week and messaged every day.

"At first, he was just being friendly, but three months in, he started to say that he was falling in love with me. By five months, my feelings slowly kicked in, too."

Peter overheard Julia talking with Ahmed over the phone on a few occasions and was aware that the pair were messaging each other at night while he was in bed. Eventually, he told Julia that if it was a new life she wanted, she needed to leave.

Although Julia did try to stop talking to Ahmed, she found she "just couldn't". By March 2017, Julia and Peter began the process of getting divorced, and in September 2018, the mum-of-three finally met up with Ahmed in person, during a 12-day holiday to Egypt with a pal.

Julia recalled: "Seeing Ahmed for the first time was very strange, but I felt like there was an instant attraction. He was taller than I thought, and he’d had his hair cut, so he looked younger. He and his friends picked my friend and me up from the hotel and took us to a café where he gave me some jewellery as a gift.

"While on that holiday, he gave me a ring. We were on the roof of an apartment, and he said, 'Will you marry me?' I thought, 'Oh my God!' but then I thought, 'OK'. However, I knew we shouldn’t rush it."

After returning to England, Julia proceeded to visit Ahmed in Egypt every eight to nine months and, in September 2020, she took the plunge and moved over there, intending to start a brand new life.

Julia remembered: "I gave everything up – my house, my kids, my family. It wasn’t easy because my children were my life. I still can’t believe I did it. I was a stay-at-home mum – I’d always been there for my kids.

"I was still friendly with my ex Peter, so I told him about my plans and he said he would give me a lift to the airport. We went out for a meal with our girls before I left – my daughters didn’t cry and said they understood that I needed to create a new life.

"On the morning I left, Peter took me to the airport, and my suitcase fell off the trolley, so he got out of the car to help me. He put his arm around me, kissed me on the cheek and told me to take care of myself. I remember telling Melissa that I’m sure he walked away with tears in his eyes. I felt split – I was leaving my family, but I was going to start a new life, and I could always come back home."

Just 12 days after arriving in Egypt, Julia and Ahmed married at the embassy in Cairo, with a translator present as they made their vows. According to Julia, Ahmed had advised her not to "wear anything special because it was a low-key day". She opted for a long white dress, patterned with leaves.

After the ceremony, a friend of the groom drove the newlyweds to Ahmed’s sister’s house, where she laid out a spread of "beautiful" food. Unfortunately, their marital bliss did not last long, and it wasn't long before their relationship took a sharp nosedive.

Disappointed wife Julia revealed: "From then on, things went downhill. Ahmed wasn’t bothered about holding my hand in public any more, and he didn’t want to take me out to cafés.

"He would go out for hours at night and leave me in the flat alone, not having a clue where he was. I already suffered from anxiety, but this made it worse. A year later, I went back to England to visit my family for two months, and when I was heading back to Egypt, I sent Ahmed a message asking if we could have a good life again. He started taking me out more regularly, and I thought that he had changed."

All Julia's hopes for a happy future came crashing down, however, when Ahmed dropped a bombshell - he wanted to take a second wife. Julia shared: "In February 2022, he took me to a café that I loved. It was beautiful, but he dropped a bombshell on me.

"He told me that he needed to marry an Egyptian woman so he could have children as I’m older and had gone through the menopause. It broke me. I couldn’t sit there knowing that my husband was away having babies with another woman."

She continued: "We had spoken about second wives throughout our relationship, but he’d told me that he didn’t need anyone else and he didn’t mind not having his own kids. We married under Islamic law, and they asked me what conditions I wanted to put in the marriage agreement, so I said I didn’t want him to marry a second wife.

"However, Ahmed was entitled to four wives, so we had it in writing that if he wanted another wife, he had to get my permission, which, obviously, I could never give.

"I told him I couldn’t share him. He told me to forget what he’d said, but I couldn’t, and we became distant. I backed off from the relationship because I didn’t see a future in it. I felt stupid. My ex Peter was a good man. I gave Ahmed everything. I gave him the . I’d wasted six years of my life."

Do you have a story to share? Email me at julia.banim@reachplc.com

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