A Lincolnshire mum said she "wasted six years of my life" after leaving her family and moving to Egypt to be with a man she met on Facebook. Julia Clark, 53, said her relationship of 15 years with her husband Peter, also 53, had "gone stale" and she felt lonely. They had three children together and Julia said it felt like "we were just there for the kids".
Things came to a head on a family holiday to Egypt in August 2016. Julia became Facebook friends with a hotel worker and then one of his friends, Ahmed, started messaging Julia when she was back in England. READ MORE: Funeral plans for 'beautiful' Kibi, 16, who should have been receiving her GCSE results next week Keep up to date with all the latest breaking news and top stories from Grimsby with our free newsletter She had "liked" a group photograph posted by the original friend that Ahmed was also in and he sent her a Facebook friend request, which she accepted.
"I don’t know why I accepted it, but I did," she told OK . Julia said: "We started talking in October 2016, just about my life and family. I told him that my mother had recently suffered a heart attack.
I felt that I could confide in him and he was there for me. Julia Clark claimed her relationship with Ahmed went downhill as soon as they got married (Image: Paul David Drabble) "After four weeks of talking, Ahmed, now 35, suggested we do a video call. 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." Ahmed confessed he was falling in love with her three months later, Julia said. She claimed her husband, Peter, knew she was video-calling Ahmed a lot and told her "if I wanted a new life then I needed to get out of here".
Julia Clark got engaged to Ahmed after meeting him in person for the first time on holiday in Turkey (Image: Paul David Drabble) In March 2017, Julia and Peter began the process of divorce. In September 2018 Julia finally met Ahmed in person when she booked a 12-day holiday to Egypt. "I felt like there was an instant attraction," Julia said.
He was taller than she imagined and when Ahmed and his friends took her to a cafe, he gave her some jewellery as a gift. While on that holiday, she said Ahmed proposed to her on a rooftop with a ring. Julia said she thought, "Oh my God!" but then, "OK.
" In September 2020 Julia moved to Egypt to start a new life. She said: "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." Julia said her daughters didn't cry when she said she was leaving for Egypt and her ex-husband Peter even drove her to the airport.
She said when they said goodbye he "told me to take care of myself". After being in Egypt just 12 days, Julia and Ahmed married in Cairo at the embassy. Afterwards, they went to Ahmed’s sister’s house and she'd prepared a special meal which Julia said was "beautiful".
But Julia said her relationship with Ahmed rapidly went downhill and he even asked her if he could have an extra wife to have children with because she was post-menopausal. She recalled: "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." In February 2022, Julia said Ahmed "dropped a bombshell" and said he needed to marry a younger Egyptian woman so he could have children. But Julia was heartbroken and said she didn't think she could share him.
She said: "I felt stupid. My ex Peter was a good man. I gave Ahmed everything.
I gave him the world. I’d wasted six years of my life." Julia and Ahmed divorced in September 2022.
Julia returned to the UK in November 2023 for her daughter’s 18th birthday and stayed for six weeks before returning to her apartment in Egypt. In January this year, she moved back to Lincoln but felt sad and "missed the people and culture" in Turkey. She said: "I met another Egyptian man before I came back to the UK, someone nearer my age, and I think he truly cares about me.
But during times of self-doubt, I think, 'It’s not real' because I mistakenly thought what I had with Ahmed was real." Ahmed told OK: "It was an Islamic wedding in an Islamic country so technically I was allowed four wives. Julia is an English woman and I am an Egyptian man and there are many differences between us in thought and culture.
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