An 86-year-old British woman has spoken about her failed marriage to a 40-year-old Egyptian.
An 86-year-old British woman who married a 40-year-old Egyptian man has announced the end of their relationship and spoken out about the high-profile breakup.
Mirror.co.uk writes about this
Iris Jones, 86, married Mohammed, 46 years her junior, in 2020 in Cairo after meeting him on social media the year before. She has previously spoken about her active sex life, but has now changed her mind.
Her new husband moved to the UK in 2021, but they divorced in 2023. And now she says: “The thought of sex now turns my stomach. I have no interest in men, not in talking to them, and certainly not in having sex with them. My experience with Mohamed has put me off relationships for life. I wish I had never met him.”
Iris, a former legal secretary, married Mohamed on her third visit to Cairo in a civil ceremony with only his father present as a witness.
Iris, who has two sons, Stephen, 59, and Darren, 58, says Stephen begged her not to do anything rash before the wedding. She was unfazed by the McDonald's wedding: “I didn't care. I thought I was madly in love, so I would have married him anywhere.”
But her desire turned to contempt and she threw Mohammed out after “constant arguments”. Iris says: “I finally realised I had had enough. I was so tired of all the housework and cleaning up after him that the physical side had worn off. Mohammed was only with me for my money. I realise that now and looking back I think, ‘How could I have been so stupid?’ The Mohammed I met in Egypt was a handsome prince, but living in my bungalow he was like the prince of darkness.”
Bank statements show that over the course of a year, Iris transferred thousands of dollars to Mohamed, which she claims were loans he failed to repay, a claim Mohamed denies.
She says the last time she spoke to her husband was when she emailed him last year asking for his address so she could speak to the Home Office about his stay in the UK. She says: “All I got back was that he gave me his lawyer’s details. I saw him in my local Tesco a few months after I threw him out of the house. When he saw me he tried to run and hide. I asked for my money back but I’ve now resigned myself to never seeing him again.”
Despite the harshness, there is no talk of divorce, says Iris, who has been divorced before.
She insists: “I'm not going to pay for a divorce. I'm not going to spend any more money on him. Divorcing him will cost me more than staying married, and I don't want to lose any more money.”
Since her divorce, Iris says she has received advice from women who say they have been cheated on by their romantic partners.
She says: “I feel like an unfortunate aunt to them. It's very sad that what happened to me happens so often. Some age gap relationships can work. But I would urge women to be careful in relationships with significantly younger men. They can be the real deal, but mine weren't.”
Today, Iris, who lives in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, has replaced her passion for sex with a new hobby. She says: “I love drawing cartoons. I find it really therapeutic. I do it every day and post my drawings on social media. I draw Mohammed all the time – one picture shows him as a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
Now the man is still in the UK and says: “I work legally in England as a welder on a building site and as a security guard. I have worked hard, paid my taxes and have never claimed any benefits since I have been here in this country. I have been accused of taking thousands, where is the evidence? I never asked Iris for money. I was not a fraud. I paid her monthly for housekeeping.”
Let us recall that the man drove his car onto a historical monument and got stuck
