Cheryl Thomasgood left her husband and three children to start a new life with a Masai warrior in Kenya. Now, she’s opened up about her regrets and shared a warning about holiday romances
A woman who left her husband and three children to pursue a relationship with a Masai warrior in Kenya has opened up about her regrets and the emotional toll of that chapter in her life.
Now 65 and living quietly in a seaside town in Somerset, Cheryl Thomasgood has broken her silence more than three decades after her story captured international attention.
Her decision to leave her comfortable suburban life on the Isle of Wight for the remote Samburu region of Kenya in 1994 was driven, she now says, by a deep yearning for spiritual healing and escape from personal trauma.
Cheryl was 34 when she met Daniel Lekimencho, a Masai warrior who performed traditional dances for tourists at the Bamburi Beach Hotel in Mombasa, Kenya.
Struck by his charisma and the allure of a vastly different way of life, she ended her marriage to her second husband Mike and left behind their three children to start a new life in Kenya with Daniel, who was ten years her junior.
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Cheryl immersed herself in Daniel’s world – living in a mud hut, cooking over open fires, and adopting elements of Masai culture, including a diet of cabbage and cow’s blood. But over time, the stark contrast between their backgrounds and expectations began to strain the relationship.
In 1995, the couple returned to the UK, married on Valentine’s Day in traditional Masai clothing, and settled on the Isle of Wight with Cheryl’s children. They later had a daughter, Mitsi, now 27. But Cheryl says the dream unravelled quickly. Daniel, once deeply spiritual and grounded in Masai tradition, reportedly became increasingly preoccupied with material wealth and status.
“I felt like I was just a meal ticket,” Cheryl told MailOnline. “I made a huge mistake, and I have a lot of regrets – especially about how it affected my children.”
Cheryl claims that Daniel began wanting for a bigger home, designer gear and cash to send home to Kenyan relatives. They began to argue a lot, and the spiritual connection they once shared faded.
Cheryl says the only time Daniel was happy was when the Kenyan warrior was jumping around in the garden doing his traditional Masai dance.
She added: “He would say that he was getting ready for battle and wanted to jump as high as an elephant. The kids loved it, but it got on my nerves after a while.”
Cheryl believes cultural differences and the pressures of assimilating into British life contributed to their eventual split in 1999, just four years after they married and a year after Mitsi’s birth. She admits that part of her motivation for staying in the relationship was to prove critics wrong.
At the time of their meeting, Cheryl was battling childhood trauma and struggling in an unhappy marriage. Encouraged by a friend from her church choir, she travelled to Kenya in hopes of finding peace. Instead, she says, the relationship served as a temporary escape rather than a solution.
She admitted: “The biggest regret of all was the impact on my children. Daniel tried, but he couldn’t be the father they needed. They missed out on having a stable male figure.”
Cheryl is now at peace with her past and has strong relationships with all four of her children: Steve, 43, Tommy, 41, Chloe, 34, and Mitsi, 27. She describes Mitsi as “the one good thing” that came from her time with Daniel.
Despite the emotional fallout, Cheryl says she has no desire to marry again. “Three marriages were enough,” she said, calling them a “hat-trick of disasters.”
The mum urged anyone pursuing a holiday romance to “be careful” as you could end up “regretting it for the rest of your life”.
Daniel, meanwhile, remained in the UK after their separation and now works in a supermarket on the Isle of Wight.
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