A Somerset woman who once left her husband and three children to begin a new life in rural Kenya with a Maasai warrior has opened up about her regrets and the emotional aftermath of her decision, more than three decades after her story first made international headlines.
Cheryl Thomasgood, now 65 and residing quietly in a coastal community, has reflected publicly for the first time on the extraordinary choices she made in the mid-1990s. Back then, disillusioned with her marriage and facing unresolved childhood trauma, Cheryl decided she needed profound change and spiritual healing. That journey took her from the comfort of the Isle of Wight to the remote Samburu region of Kenya, marking the start of a romance she now says ultimately ended in heartbreak.
The dramatic shift began in 1994 when, at the age of 34, Cheryl met Daniel Lekimencho, a charismatic Maasai warrior, during a package holiday to Mombasa. While performing traditional dances for tourists at a coastal hotel, Daniel’s charm and the allure of his radically different world captivated her. Cheryl soon made the life-altering decision to part ways with her second husband, Mike, and leave her three children behind to be with Daniel, who was ten years her junior.
Eager to embrace her new life, Cheryl adapted to many aspects of Maasai culture. She took up residence in a mud hut, learned to cook over open fires, and even adopted traditional dietary practices, which included cabbage and cow’s blood. However, the novelty of her new existence eventually gave way to the challenges stemming from the vast cultural divide between her and Daniel.
Their whirlwind romance brought them back to the UK in 1995, where they married on Valentine’s Day clad in Maasai attire and set up home on the Isle of Wight. Together they welcomed a daughter, Mitsi, now 27. Yet, the couple’s attempts at building a new life soon unravelled. Daniel, who was once deeply rooted in the spirituality and customs of the Maasai people, began to adopt a more materialistic outlook. According to Cheryl, their relationship fractured as Daniel’s aspirations shifted towards acquiring status symbols and sending financial support to his relatives in Kenya.
Cheryl candidly described feelings of having been reduced to “a meal ticket”, sharing with MailOnline her sorrow over the impact upon her children. Arguments became routine, and the spiritual bond that once united the pair quickly eroded. The only flicker of Daniel’s old self, she noted, appeared when he performed traditional Maasai dances in their British garden—a source of amusement for the children, but an increasing irritant for Cheryl herself.
The cultural and personal strains eventually proved insurmountable. The marriage collapsed in 1999, just a year after Mitsi’s birth. Cheryl acknowledged that her determination to prove sceptics wrong, as well as lingering hope for spiritual fulfilment, prolonged their union. In hindsight, she recognises the attempt to heal from life’s traumas through such a dramatic upheaval was ultimately misguided.
Reflecting on those tumultuous years, Cheryl’s greatest regrets centre on her children’s loss of a steady father figure during formative years. She now enjoys close relationships with all four children—Steve, Tommy, Chloe, and Mitsi—and speaks of Mitsi as “the one good thing” to have resulted from her liaison with Daniel. She pointedly notes the necessity of caution in pursuing holiday romances, warning that what begins as an exhilarating love affair can carry lifelong consequences.
Daniel, meanwhile, remained in the UK following their breakup, forging a new life working at a supermarket on the Isle of Wight. As for Cheryl, she harbours no desire to remarry, describing her three marriages as a “hat-trick of disasters”. Her story stands as a remarkable, cautionary tale, highlighting the complexities of cross-cultural relationships and the far-reaching impact of seeking escape in the arms of another.
Cheryl’s openness about her journey serves both as a source of empathy and as an advisory note for others contemplating a leap into the unknown. As she continues to rebuild her life with her family by her side, she hopes that her experience can offer perspective to anyone caught between the longing for reinvention and the very real consequences such recklessness may bring.
In sharing her account, Cheryl has shed light on the emotional toll of leaving behind loved ones for the promise of renewal in a faraway land—an experience that, for her, proved both transformative and deeply fraught.