Tunisia: British mum marries online boyfriend

  1. Posted on Saturday 2 October 2010 - 15:15
    KingsleyKobo
    Image of KingsleyKobo
    Kingsley Kobo, AfricaNews reporter in Abidjan, Ivory Coast Photo: The British mum and her Tunisian husband
    British-born Wendy Paduch, 26 and mother of two young children - Dylan, 5 and Natasha, 8 - left her Grimsby base in Lincolnshire, England last July for Jendoubi, a tiny Tunisian desert town, to marry Wadji Jouini - a 21-year-old jobless Tunisian man she had been dating online six months before.
    British mum flies to Africa to marry online boyfriend
    Wendy quickly dominated the British press, and branded by commentators as Britain's worst mum for abandoning her vulnerable kids with her 59-year-old mother and going on amorous escapade in North Africa.

    According to the Daily Mirror, which tracked down Wendy and her new husband in her in-laws’ ramshackle home in Jendoubi, the British lady says she has done nothing wrong, but regrets leaving her kids back in England for this long – three months.

    “I know people think I am awful,” Wendy says. “I have just tried to be happy. I fell in love and all I wanted was to get married. I flew over to be with the man I love. I've done nothing wrong. I am not a bad mum. I shouldn’t have left my kids too long, I regret that but I have been trying and trying to get home.”

    Wendy and Wadji got married shortly after they met face to face for the first time in July, after months of chatting online and viewing each other through webcams.

    They plan to leave Tunisia together for England, prompting many in the UK to feel the Tunisian man coaxed Wendy into a marriage of interest so he can obtain a British visa and nationality in the future.

    But Wadji, who earlier broke up with another British woman whom he had met online because he saw her too old when they met in Tunisia a while ago, counters he didn’t marry Wendy for benefits, but for real.

    “People say I am doing it for money or a visa. But I love her and want to be with her. I sold my computer to pay for Wendy’s ticket home,” he says.

    However, the new couple might face terrible times if they eventually arrive in Britain because Wendy’s landlord has changed the locks of her home, making her now homeless. And her mum vows not to welcome or accept her new husband.

    Some Africans – men and women – have founded love relationships online with partners across the Mediterranean, but few have lasted, according to recent researches.

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