A British lady who left her husband and three children to start a new life with a Masai warrior in Kenya has spoken up about her regrets and the emotional toll her unique relationship took on her family. She felt stuck in her marriage. Cheryl Thomasgood’s story made international news after she left her comfortable suburban life on England’s Isle of Wight to pursue an unexpected romance in a remote Kenyan town. But now, decades later, she’s speaking up about the truth behind what had looked like a fantasy.
Cheryl was 34 years old in 1995 when she met Daniel Lekimencho, a towering 6-foot-2 Masai warrior and traditional dancer who performed for visitors at a Mombasa hotel. Their bond was immediate and strong.
Cheryl Mason was feeling stuck in her marriage and dissatisfied with her employment as a hairdresser on the tranquil Isle of Wight, off England’s southern coast. She thought that a week-long trip to Africa with a partner would help her clear her mind and choose what changes she wanted to make. But Cheryl had no idea that a night at the hotel bar with a troupe of tribal dancers would change her life forever. Even more startling was the fact that her life would be altered by a Masai warrior ten years younger than her, who lived in a mud hut and spent his days hunting giraffes and lions.
“When I saw him, I was bowled over by his physical appearance,” Cheryl told the Province in 1998. “I knew I couldn’t spend my life without him.”
“I had to make a decision.” After the concert, Daniel approached Cheryl and offered to tour her around Kenya’s coast. What followed was a whirlwind romance, with the couple spending the rest of her trip exploring the beach and enjoying their connection.
But as the journey ended, Cheryl was confronted with a difficult decision: return home to her husband and children, or follow her heart into the unknown. “He was so beautiful, I had to make a decision,” she recalled. “It was then I thought, well, what am I going to do—be sensible and play the contented suburban housewife, or start living the way I wanted to?”
Cheryl left her second husband, Mike Mason, and their three children in just a few weeks to be with Daniel, who was 10 years younger than her. Surprisingly, Cheryl’s husband, Mike, received the news with great grace. He stated that their marriage had been strained for some time and even sold his car to help pay for her return journey to Kenya.
Husband’s response. “Some people think I’m a bit of a wimp over this and that I should have kicked Cheryl out right then,” Mike told me at the time. “But there are children involved, and I wanted to keep our relationship positive. I have to accept that our marriage has ended.”
Cheryl packed her belongings and relocated to Kenya in late 1994, moving into Daniel’s mud house in rural Africa. For a few months, she embraced the traditional Masai lifestyle, but the harsh surroundings soon wore her down. The intense midday heat and chilly nights significantly impacted Cheryl’s health, leading to her rapid decline. Needing to return to England to heal, she devised a daring strategy to rejoin with Daniel: she sold her tale to the media. The money from those interviews helped her pay for his plane ticket to the UK.
When Daniel landed in the UK, it was time for the next major surprise. The pair made a strong statement by marrying on Valentine’s Day 1995 while dressed in traditional Masai attire. Authorities, on the other hand, were doubtful of the marriage, fearing it was really a ruse to help Daniel obtain citizenship. Consequently, he was deported in 1995. The couple returned to the UK a few years later, raising their daughter Mitsi and adjusting to life on the Isle of Wight.
The truth of their connection
Their whirlwind love story grabbed headlines and thrilled readers at the time, but years later, the fairy tale has faded, and Cheryl’s interpretation of events is quite different. But Cheryl claims that the reality of their relationship was far from the mystical connection she had envisioned. She now acknowledges she was used as a “meal ticket” by Daniel, who became obsessed with money and personal possessions after arriving in England.
“I made a huge mistake; it was very wrong of me, and I have many regrets, especially about how it damaged my children,” Cheryl told MailOnline in a rare interview on her “tormented” marriage.
She recalls Daniel’s rapid transformation from the spiritual, proud warrior she fell in love with in Kenya to somebody dissatisfied with middle-class life, constantly seeking more—from a larger home to designer clothes and money to give back to his family in Kenya. “The only time Daniel was happy was when he was jumping around in the garden doing his traditional Masai dance,” Cheryl told me. “He would claim that he was preparing for combat and intended to jump as high as an elephant. The kids adored it, but it irritated me after a while.”
The couple had a challenging history. Despite her ambitions, cultural differences and Daniel’s efforts to acclimate resulted in frequent disagreements and, finally, their separation in 1999, barely four years after their wedding. Cheryl also spoke openly about her tough history, stating that she had been sexually abused as a kid and was dealing with trauma and an unhappy marriage before meeting Daniel. A church choir member pushed her to go on the Kenyan trip that would transform her life, but what she expected to be a therapeutic experience turned out to be a terrible escape.
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“This situation had a significant effect on my children.” Having a Masai warrior as a father was difficult for them. Daniel was doing his best, but he could never grasp Western culture and couldn’t be the father the kids needed,” Cheryl recalled.
Her children—Steve, 43; Tommy, 41; Chloe, 34; and Mitsi, 27—have had to deal with the tangled consequences of their mother’s decisions, but Cheryl says she is glad that, despite everything, her connections with them are intact.
Cheryl, 65, now lives a tranquil life in a coastal hamlet in Somerset, away from the attention and turmoil of her past. She has no plans to remarry after experiencing a series of unfortunate events.
Meanwhile, Daniel continues to live on the Isle of Wight, working at a supermarket—a long cry from the brave warrior who once danced under the Kenyan sun.