A grandmother-of-six has vowed to continue fighting for a visa for her new husband, who is 45 years her junior, lives 4,000 miles away, and who she met face-to-face on their wedding day.
Angela Nwachukwu, 72, married her husband CJ Nwachukwu in April 2015, just three months after he had added her on Facebook and struck up a conversation.
The retired taxi driver from Weymouth says she couldn’t help but fall for her 27-year-old lover from Nigeria, when they started talking, and is devastated that their applications for visas have failed.
She says she has spent £20,000 on him, including lawyers to help with the visas and flights to visit him, but says he had repaid her half when he can.
Angela Nwachukwu with her husband CJ, who she met online and married within months, in Nigeria
Mrs Nwachukwu met her husband on Facebook and said she couldn’t help but fall for him when they started talking
She told the Sun she’d been left lonely and isolated after the breakdown of her marriage, six months before they met online.
One day she found a message and a friend request from Mr Nwachukwu, and couldn’t see the harm in striking up conversation.
She said: ‘He was so handsome, with big, brown eyes and a body to match.
‘We chatted for hours about our families and hobbies. It was like we’d known each other for years. Before I knew it, we were messaging daily.
‘Despite our huge age gap, we got on really well. I couldn’t help it and began to develop feelings for him. I tried to stop myself.’
Mrs Nwachukwu said she has spent £20,000 on lawyers to help bring him over on a visa, and that her husband has always paid her back
To her surprise, he popped the question on Skype, and she gleefully accepted.
The pair wed in Lagos, Nigeria, and have since seen each other twice, as she has flown there to visit him.
Mr Nwachukwu has even been denied a tourist visa to see his wife, and their applications have been turned down because it’s thought they won’t have financial backing.
Despite criticisms, Mrs Nwachukwu insists the marriage is not a scam, because she doesn’t have any money and was upfront about that at the start.
She now hopes he will be able to get a student visa for a Masters, to be reunited with her.