When Christina Miles defied her parents’ wishes and converted to Islam to marry a Maasai warrior twice her age, she was determined their love would last.
She admits she was a naive 16-year-old schoolgirl and Kenyan-born Juma Hassan, by then 30, was touring the UK as part of a Maasai dance-troupe and stayed in Cleethorpes, where the teenager lived.
They locked eyes as Juma performed a tribal dance at a Maasai circus and later Christina stepped backstage to meet the warrior.
Besotted, for the next five years the teenager followed Juma to seaside town after seaside town across the UK until work for the warrior from Mombasa began to slow down.
Still deeply in love, it was at this point that Christina’s hopes of a big white wedding were dashed when the Home Office intervened in their love match and with Juma’s five-year working visa was about to expire and he was ordered to return to Kenya, where he lived in a mud hut.
They hastily arranged a wedding in February 2010 in the hope that would have been enough to allow the newlyweds to remain in the UK.
But despite being husband and wife, Juna was still sent back to Kenya and the couple lived apart for a year with Christina, still only 19, remaining in Lincolnshire.
‘Anyone who doesn’t believe in love at first sight should be inspired by our story,’ she beamed on their seven-year anniversary.
When Christina Miles defied her parents’ wishes and converted to Islam to marry a Maasai warrior, Juma Hassan, twice her age, she was determined their love would last
But now, 15 years down the line from their rushed wedding, Christina confessed to MailOnline that their marriage is in tatters and they have divorced
Besotted, for the next five years the teenager followed Juma to seaside town after seaside town across the UK until work for the warrior from Mombasa began to slow down
But now, 15 years down the line from their rushed wedding, Christina confessed to MailOnline that their marriage is in tatters and they have divorced after she says Juma was unfaithful to her.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline at her home in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, she admitted: ‘He broke my heart and our marriage, which I thought would be forever, ended very abruptly.’
‘He was unfaithful to me. It was heartbreaking. I could never forgive him,’ she added.
‘I was always faithful to him, that is the way I am, and it was devastating when I found out. But it is what it is.’
Throughout their years together the couple had gone through hard times – mostly revolving around Juma’s visa issues.
When they met, Christina had lived with her close-knit family in a modest but comfortable home with her parents Julie, now 57, and Christopher, now 66, and brother Nathan.
Meanwhile Juma, who was one of seven children, was sharing a mattress with a male friend in a flimsy house in a shanty town area.
After they married, six of their 11 years as husband and wife were spent battling for Juma to get permanent residency in the UK, which he now has.
The most difficult time for them were the months immediately after they married when he was forced to return home to Kenya until Christina turned 21 and spousal support laws around immigration kicked in.
‘We missed each other terribly. We’d had this whirlwind romance and lovely wedding, then suddenly it was like none of it ever happened – like Juma never existed,’ she remembered.
‘We kept in touch via phone calls and I managed to get together enough money to visit him for a couple of weeks but it almost wrecked us.’
After securing a job as a dancer at Blackpool Tower Circus, Juma went on to take tests to prove he could speak English and was ready to become a UK citizen.
He passed the tests, but was he was still denied a spousal visa, despite Christina being pregnant with their son at the time.
His working visa was extended by two years and finally, after a six-year battle, he was granted right to remain in the UK.
She reflected at the time: ‘It’s been a long hard battle, but we’ve stuck together throughout it all.
‘Everyone said we wouldn’t last and my dad Chris even threatened to boycott our wedding, but he sees how much Juma loves me and treats him like his own son now.
She added: ‘Truth be told, I feel a little smug now it’s all worked out for us! I couldn’t believe it when the visa finally came through.’
Although the couple won their citizenship battle, it took its toll on the couple and created a strain on their marriage.
The hard-working nursery school practitioner explained this week: ‘The Government failed us for granting us the right to marry in Britain, then splitting us up and deporting my husband back to Africa because of their ridiculous and barmy rules.
‘It put so much strain and pressure on our relationship, and then my husband failed me for being unfaithful.’
The couple spilt in 2020 and despite a few of failed relationships since, she remains ‘happily single’, declaring.
‘I’m on my own, it’s just me and my son, and probably the only child I will have now, and I am quite happy,’ she said.
She told how she had converted to Muslim faith to support her husband but after their split has now reverted to Christianity.
She plays an active role at her local church – Laceby Road Methodist Church in Grimsby, where she is a worshipper and plays in its band.
Christina has now moved back to her hometown of Cleethorpes from Blackpool to be near her parents.
Christina would not elaborate on the cheating claims and it is unclear what evidence she has to support them.
‘Many couples, despite nationality, culture, faith and age split up through infidelity. These things happen,’ she said.
‘Although I was heartbroken over Juma, he was the love of my life, it probably worked out of for the best, and we are both happier now.
‘I have to put any feelings I had for him aside. But if you cheat you pay the consequences, and he begged me to take him back but I refused.’
Giving a glimpse into her single life now, Christina told MailOnline this week how she enjoyed being a sole parent to her son and working full time in a nearby nursery school where she teaches youngsters up to aged five.
She admits she was a naive 16-year-old schoolgirl and Kenyan-born Juma Hassan, by then 30, was touring the UK as part of a Maasai dance-troupe and stayed in Cleethorpes, where the teenager lived
She said her relationship with her former husband was ‘amicable’ and described him as a ‘good and supportive dad.’
She said he still visits their son at their modest semi in Grimsby about once a month, as and when he can, and financially supports him.
She added: ‘Our son is at that age where he is more interested in playing with his mates then being with his mum or dad.’
Juma is understood to still be living in Blackpool. It is unclear whether he accepts the accusations that he was unfaithful and Christina was not willing to elaborate on her claims.
Christina said she also blamed the Home Office for the ‘incredible stress’ they were both put under battling to sort out Juma’s visa, saying: ‘The Home Office helped to break our marriage.
‘They tried to stop our relationship, they had granted us the right to marry and for Juma to stay here, then they changed all the rules about sponsorship and spousal visas and deported him.’
She warned other women who have found love with African and other foreign partners, who are not UK citizens, to be fully aware of the pitfalls.
She said: ‘The visa situation was draining for us both, and him being sent back and forth from this country, and afterwards and when it had finally been sorted out six years it had put such a strain in us, our relationship started to fizzle out.
‘I had even become a Muslim for my husband, but not anymore.’
Life with her new love had taken her away from her roots, her family and friends, but she is happy to be back home in Lincolnshire.
She said: ‘It’s a nice place to live and very friendly. I’m doing OK.’
