A mother-of-nine is feared by friends to be planning to marry the African toyboy she ditched her husband for.
Heidi Hepworth has waved goodbye to her life as a bored housewife for a romantic holiday in The Gambia 30-year-old Mamadou Jallow who she met on Facebook.
Heidi, 44, from Tyneside, has been slammed as ‘nasty’ and ‘delusional’ for dumping husband Andy, 44, father of six of her children and her partner for 23 years.
Now friends fear she is engaged after she posed for a loving photo with Mr Jallow, 14 years her junior, wearing a ring on her engagement finger.
Tying the knot? Mother-of-nine Heidi Hepworth, 44, is feared by friends to be planning to marry African toyboy Mamadou Jallow, whom she ditched her husband for after she appeared in this loved up photograph wearing a ring on her engagement finger
Shirley Valentine: Mrs Hepworth has waved goodbye to her life as a bored housewife with husband Andy, 44, for a romantic holiday in The Gambia Mr Jallow who she met on Facebook
Romantic holiday: Mother-of-nine Mrs Hepworth (pictured) has ditched her partner of 23 years and their children for a life with Mr Jallow
Makeover: Mrs Hepworth got tattoos (left) and booked sunbeds as part of her transformation before she flew to Gambia last month – her first ever trip out of the UK
A friend told MailOnline: ‘She’s completely lost her mind and needs to come to her senses before this spirals even further out of control.
‘From photographs she is posting on Facebook it’s clear she’s wearing a ring on her engagement finger and it wasn’t there when she left.
‘She and Andy got married in 2012 and although divorce proceedings started they’re not complete and if she married this man it would be bigamous.
‘The heart-breaking thing is that this is so unlike her, she was a doting, loving mother and wife who has lost her way in the most unbelievable of circumstances.
‘To see her wearing a ring on that finger is troubling because it’s certainly nothing to do with her past life.
‘Her friends are shocked but more than that they are worried about her, that she is potentially putting herself in danger.
‘She took money out with her and that’s also a concern in a country that lives with such poverty. She will stand out a mile and has put herself at risk.’
The friend said that Heidi has become a completely changed character since meeting Mamadou online.
Concern: But friends fear that Mrs Hepworth is going to get hurt. One said: A friend told MailOnline: ‘She’s completely lost her mind and needs to come to her senses before this spirals even further out of control.’
Left behind: Husband Andy, pictured with one of their daughters) and his wife had been together 18 years when they tying the knot five years ago. Now he says their marriage is over
They added: ‘She was quiet, almost prudish and never talked about sex, but suddenly she seemed to have some kind of transformation and began dressing and acting sexily.
‘Andy has said the messages he found on her computer were very risqué and he didn’t recognise the woman in them as the one that he married.
‘She’s determined to be seen differently, someone younger and sexier.
‘She posted a picture of a huge rose tattoo on the side of a young woman and claimed it was her, but it wasn’t, she’s been living in a fantasy world for months.’
Today Heidi has been keeping a low profile in Banjul, Gambia, determined to enjoy the rest of her time with her lover.
She is due back into the country on November 28th to face her family.
She has told The Sun: ‘I’ve met a young gentleman but it’s not an affair. The marriage had problems. We drifted apart. Can a woman not have a new relationship?’
Andy and his wife had been together 18 years when they eventually decided to tie the knot five years ago.
Now, the Navy veteran is convinced their marriage is over having noticed a change in Heidi in March after ‘Asian and African men’ started adding her on social media sites.
‘She was wearing more make up and dresses which she’d never done before. It just wasn’t her,’ he said.
‘She was going out all the time with friends and was always on her phone. ‘A caring mum wouldn’t go off gallivanting around Africa with her new boyfriend.’
On October 20, Heidi changed her profile picture on Facebook to this cryptic picture of an interracial couple kissing
Heidi said she saw her future with Mamadou and her children, despite being almost 3,000 miles away from them.
She claims to be talking to them via video chat every day and insisted she was missing them.
Andy and Heidi met in the 1990s, and although he described their relationship as ‘rock solid’, he said this was a betrayal too big for them to recover from.