A mum who ditched her husband and three kids for the Egyptian lover she met on a family holiday has told how she moved abroad to start a new life with him – before he told her he wanted someone else. Julia Clark had been married for 15 years when she began to feel like her relationship had gone stale.
And a holiday to Egypt changed the lives of the 53-year-old and her family forever, after meeting a man she ended up leaving her husband, Peter, for. During the two-week trip Julia met 35-year-old Ahmed, who was 18 years younger than her and Peter, who is also 53.
And she ended up leaving Peter to marry Ahmed, before he dropped a bombshell that he needed to be with someone else. The Express reports mother-of-three Julia revealed how her life drastically changed following the August 2016 break, after she began to feel lonely, in an interview with OK!.
Julia and Ahmed.
She said: “It felt like my relationship had gone stale. I’d been married to my husband for 15 years, and he was a good man, a brilliant father to our children James, now 34, Melissa, 21, and Amelia, 18, and provided for me, but it felt like we were just there for the kids.” Ahmed worked in a hotel and approached Julia when they were away.
He asked to add her on Facebook. After going home, she accepted the request and received a message from him. Four weeks later, messaging turned into video calls. Julia says: “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.
“My husband had heard me on the phone to Ahmed a few times and he knew that if I was downstairs at night while he was in bed, I was probably messaging him. One time he said if I wanted a new life then I needed to get out of here. I thought he was right. I did try to stop speaking to Ahmed, but I just couldn’t.”
March 2017 saw Julia and Peter begin the divorce process. It wasn’t until 2018 that Julia met Ahmed in person, when she left for a 12-day holiday. She says: “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.
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“I went to Egypt every eight to nine months to see Ahmed, and in September 2020, I moved there to start a new life. 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.”
Twelve days after moving to Egypt, the new couple married. However, things began to take a dire turn. Julia explains how Ahmed would go out at night without telling her where he was and stopped taking her on dates. Julia decided to fly back to England, yet Ahmed messaged her, asking to try again.
Despite this, when arriving back in Egypt, Ahmed “dropped a bombshell” saying he needed to marry an Egyptian woman to have children as Julia was too old. After discussing the possibility of a second wife, as they were married under Islamic Law, Julia decided something had changed and backed off from the relationship.
She said: “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.” Julia and Ahmed then divorced in September 2022, after she returned to the UK in 2023 and permanently moved back to Lincoln in January 2024.
“I still think there’s someone out there for me, but there’s no chance of a reconciliation with Peter. 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’.
“I mistakenly thought what I had with Ahmed was real.” Ahmed said: “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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