A British grandma who fell for a Gambian man over 20 years her junior has revealed when she started to suspect the man's sister was actually his wife.
Zena, a 65-year-old from Surrey, started a romance with 44-year-old waiter Ebrima after the pair met at a holiday resort in Banjul two years ago.
During the course of their relationship, Ebrima asked her to stop drinking alcohol and wearing revealing clothing, as Zena adapted to dating a muslim man. She also lavished him with gifts including an iPhone.
While family members raised concerns, and she also faced backlash on her social media, she said that their age difference wasn't a problem and that she simply wasn't interested in men her age who are all 'bald with big guts'. Fair enough.
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Speaking about her new beau, she said: "He's extremely fit and I am so attracted to him.
"When I put a few posts up on my social media, a lot of people said ‘You're just a visa vagina’ or ‘You're just a sex tourist’. No, I'm not a sex tourist because if I wanted [to have] sex in England I would, even at my age.”
However, things took a turn for the worse when Zena started to question if Ebrima was being entirely truthful with her, after realising that he was closer with his 'sister' than most.
The duo appeared together on the TV documentary 90 Day Fiancé UK where their relationship was laid bare for all to see, with Ebrima confirming in the show that he was desperate to get to England to escape the poor wages in Gambia.
He said: “The income is very low so it is dependent on tips. Everyone is struggling to have English people because English people give tips.”
However, suspicions for Zena grew around how truthful her partner was being, especially after she heard his supposed's sister's son call him 'dad' and not uncle, suggesting that he may have a wife and not a sister. Ebrima vehemently denied this suggestion.
Zena questioned her fiancé on his faithfulness, asking at one point: “You're miles away here in the Gambia. You could be doing whatever you wanted, couldn't you?”, to which Ebrima insisted he had 'never been unfaithful'.
In the end, the pair reconciled and Zena ended up giving him 'the benefit of the doubt'.
Their relationship nearly broke down completely however when Zena discovered Ebrima had also been lying about not having a Facebook page, as her granddaughter Tillie discovered his social media where he had a number of female friends.
“What a cheek. I'm furious really. He said he never had one,” said Zena, who said she would confront him about it when she returned to Gambia, “I feel sick, he's totally deceived me.”
Despite him suggesting that he was joking, she clearly didn't see the funny side, saying: “I don't really think it's that funny. I'm not going to waste all my time getting over here, buying you things and buying things for your family and then, lo and behold, you're playing me."
Well, despite this arguably obvious realisation, the documentary never reveals if Ebrima's sister is actually his wife, and it seems as if the two are going to put their issues aside and continue working on their relationship, after she gave him 'the benefit of the doubt'.
All I can say is good luck, and at least he isn't pretending to be Gary Barlow.
James Moorhouse