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J, 53Julia Clark Originally from the UK, she left her husband of 15 years and three children to start a new life with a man she had never met. But everything went terribly wrong…
Sitting by the pool as her family played in the water, the married mother of three wondered why she felt so alone. “Despite the funny moments and beautiful photos, I felt lonely,” the 53-year-old told the magazine OK!
“My relationship seemed to have lost its spark. Peter I have been married for 15 years. He is a wonderful man and a great father to our children Jamesaged 34, Melissa21 years old, EmilyAt 18, he took good care of us, but it felt like everything we did was for the kids,” she revealed.
“My life changed during that holiday in 2016. As I sat and watched my family, a hotel employee came up and asked my name. He wanted to know if I was Facebook. I told him my name and introduced him to Peter, who had just come out of the pool. I didn’t think much of it until we got home.”
He caught her attention
A few days after they returned home, Julia received a friend request from a man she had met at the pool and began liking his posts, including those featuring his friends.
“At that time, I felt Ahmed “It first caught my attention. He must have noticed that I liked the posts and sent me a friend request,” she explained. “For some reason, I accepted the request.”
Time passed, and one day he texted her: “Hi. How are you?” They started chatting in October 2016, mostly about Julia’s life and family. “I told him that my mother had recently had a heart attack. I felt comfortable talking to him, and he stood by me.”
After about a month of chatting, Ahmed, 35, suggested a video call. “It was nice to see his face, he was friendly and always smiling. From then on, we talked by video two or three times a week and texted every day.
Admit that you are in love
“Everything was friendly at first, but after three months he admitted he was in love with me. In the fifth month, I realised I had feelings for him too.” She added: “My husband overheard me and Ahmed talking a few times and he knew I might text him if I was downstairs at night and he was upstairs. He once told me that if I wanted a new life I had to leave him.”
“I think he’s right. I tried to cut ties with Ahmed, but I couldn’t.”
In March 2017, she began the process of divorce, which Julia described as a “bittersweet move.” It wasn’t until September 2018 that Julia and Ahmed finally met face to face, and although it seemed “surreal,” “sparks flew immediately.”
The fairy tale did not last
During Julia’s 12-day vacation, he asked her a question on the roof of the building. “He said: Will you marry me? I thought, ‘Oh my God!’ But I knew we shouldn’t rush it.”
“I went to Egypt every eight to nine months,” she explains, “to see him, and in September 2020 I moved there to start a new life. I gave up everything – the house, the children, the family. It wasn’t easy because my children meant everything to me. I still can’t believe I did it. Until then, I stayed at home with my children – I was always there for them.”
Egypt’s dream quickly faded. Photograph: Sculpies Getty Images/istockphoto
The couple got married at the Cairo embassy, where Ahmed told Julia not to wear anything special because it was a “nondescript day”.
But the fairy tale didn’t last long – things quickly started going downhill.
“Ahmad didn’t want to hold my hand in public anymore, he didn’t want to go to cafes with me. He would go out for hours at night, leaving me alone in the apartment, not knowing where he was. … I already suffered from anxiety, and this made me feel worse.”
A year later, Julia returned to the UK to visit her family and asked Ahmed if they could rekindle their relationship. “He started taking me out more often and I thought he had changed,” Julia said. “In February 2022, he took me to a cafe that I loved. It was nice, but he told me some shocking news. He said he had to marry an Egyptian woman to have children because I was older and had gone through menopause.”
Four wives “belonged” to him
“It broke my heart. I couldn’t sit there knowing my husband wasn’t around and had a child with another woman. “We had talked about other wives during our relationship but he told me he didn’t need anyone else and he didn’t mind not having children of his own. We were married under Islamic law and they asked me what conditions I wanted to put in the marriage contract so I said I didn’t want him to marry another woman.”
“However, Ahmed was entitled to four wives, so we wrote that if he wanted another wife, he had to get my permission, which I could never give,” she explained. “I gave everything to Ahmed. I gave him the world. I wasted six years of my life.”
In 2022, they officially divorced and Julia moved back to the UK. She added: “I still believe there are people who support me, but it was impossible for me to reconcile with Peter. Before I returned to the UK, I met another Egyptian, a man closer to my age, who I thought really cared about me. But in moments of doubt, past experience made me worry that he didn’t really care.”
In his defence, Ahmed said: “This is an Islamic marriage in an Islamic country, so technically I can marry four wives. Julia is British and I am Egyptian, and there are many differences between us in terms of both thought and culture.”
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