EXCLUSIVE My mum married a Masai warrior she met on holiday in Kenya... it destroyed my childhood
The son of a woman who abandoned him and the rest of the family for a Masai warrior she met on holiday has spoken for the first time about how she 'ruined his childhood'.
Stevie Liddington, 43, felt compelled to break his 30-year silence after reading MailOnline's sensational account of how his mother, Cheryl Thomasgood, regrets marrying Masai tribesman Daniel Lekimencho and swapping her home on the Isle of Wight for a mud hut.
Cheryl, now 65, claimed in the article that she had maintained a 'good relationship' with all her four children, despite admitting the damage she had done to them through her actions.
But web design company owner Stevie hit back and says he is 'ashamed to call her my mother'.
And in stark contrast to Cheryl's recollections of her children being 'taken' with Daniel, Stevie said he viewed him as 'a stranger in our house' and recalled physical fights between Daniel and Cheryl.
While the world viewed the relationship as a 'quirky story', Stevie's legacy from his mother's actions was years of therapy as he struggled against depression.
Cheryl was aged 34 and on a holiday in the East African country in March 1994 when Daniel came to her hotel as part of a group that performed traditional Masai dancing for tourists.
Within weeks of becoming besotted by him, she dumped her husband Mike Mason and her three children, to pursue a new life with the dashing 6ft 2in warrior who was ten years her junior.
The couple later moved to Britain and married in February 1995 on the Isle of Wight and had a daughter Misti, Cheryl's fourth child, in January 1998.
But the relationship with Daniel fizzled out a couple of years later after Cheryl complained that her 'spiritual warrior turned into a miserable sod, more like Victor Meldrew.' These days, Daniel works in a supermarket on the Isle of Wight.
Stevie, now aged 43, contacted MailOnline to give his account of events and paints a much darker picture of a mother who selfishly turned her back on her 11-year-old son and his two siblings, leaving deep emotional scars in her wake.
'My mother did not just abandon her family in the 1990s – she ruined our childhoods,' he said.
'She left behind three children, including me, and never looked back in any meaningful or supportive way.
'She was never the kind of mother who cared about her children's emotional well-being, and even now, decades later, she continues to show who she truly is by dragging this all up again without a thought for the people it hurts.'
Cheryl was never a stranger to publicity, conducting frequent press and TV interviews, and even wrote her own 1995 book on the affair, cheekily entitling it 'White Mischief' in a nod to the 1987 film about the so-called Happy Valley murder, starring Charles Dance and Greta Scacchi.
And contrary to Cheryl's claims last week that she still maintains good relations with her children, Stevie – who now has his own family and lives in Seoul, South Korea -- said he has not exchanged a word with her in 10 years.
'She has never met her grandchildren. She has never made any real effort to be in our lives. Her portrayal of having 'good relationships' with her children is completely false - I have not spoken to her in years, my Brother left for Canada and myself to Korea to get away from her!
'My mother has always been wrapped up in her own story, her own image, and her own self-interest.
'This latest article is just another example of that. It may seem like a tale of reflection or regret, but to those of us who lived through it, it's a painful reminder of neglect, manipulation, and broken trust.
'It's hard to watch her seek sympathy from the public when the damage she caused to her own family remains unacknowledged and unhealed.
'I am ashamed to call her my mother, and deeply disgusted that she continues to rewrite the past while ignoring the consequences of her actions on those she left behind.'
Stevie explained that his mother's abandonment 'didn't happen in a vacuum' and he 'had already been through hell as a child', including a spell in foster care due to the family's chaotic home life.
Stevie and his younger brother were the children of Cheryl's first marriage to Robert Liddington, who left the family when Stevie was only five.
He said: 'My father had left, my mother had a breakdown, and I saw things no child should ever witness — including her holding a knife to her own neck in front of me. We were put into foster care, living in poverty in London, terrified and unstable.
'Then came Mike Mason, a good man who gave us stability. He stepped up and gave us a home,' he said.
Cheryl and Mike later had a daughter born in 1990.
Added Stevie: 'And just when life finally started to feel normal, she destroyed it. With one phone call from Kenya, she told us she wasn't coming back.
'I saw Mike — who never drank — paralytic on the floor with grief. That's what she left behind.'
Stevie has bitter memories of the publicity storm which descended on the family following Cheryl's betrayal of the family – and the brutal consequences on himself.'The media took over our lives,' he said. 'Crews came to our house to film like we were a reality show. The Big Breakfast. Tabloids. German documentaries.'
There was no escape for him away from home, either.
'At school, classmates brought in newspapers to laugh at me. Teachers stood by or laughed along. I was publicly humiliated. People talk about childhood trauma like it's abstract — for me, it was printed in black and white on front pages.'And where was Cheryl? Chasing cameras. Giving interviews. Writing a book. She didn't ask how we were. She didn't check in. Our family crumbled.'
Stevie says he is sceptical of his mother's present-day take on the events which devastated his upbringing.
'She claims to have regrets now, but I don't buy it. She's never taken accountability, not truly. Her version of 'reflection' is always about how she suffered, how she was tricked or heartbroken. 'Meanwhile, we — her kids — were left to clean up the wreckage of the choices she made.'
He claims she wasn't truthful in her own recollections of those days.'What makes the [MailOnline] article even harder to read is her dishonesty. For example, the image painted of Daniel jumping in the garden, laughing with us — that never happened.
'We were not 'taken' with him. He was a stranger in our home who could barely speak English. Their relationship was violent, chaotic. I remember physical fights between the two.
'I was just a teenager, and I often had to look after Misti myself. There were times Cheryl would go missing for days, and I'd have to file missing person reports. I'd walk the parks for hours with Misti in her buggy, praying to whoever was listening that my mum wasn't dead.
'It triggered the worst fears from my earlier childhood — fears of suicide, abandonment, trauma repeating itself. I just wanted a normal life. The stress was unbearable.'
With the help of counselling, Stevie says he has fought to lay the demons to rest and offer a better future for his own children. 'I've worked hard to break the cycle. I've had therapy, built a stable life, and became a father. I love my kids in a way Cheryl never loved us — not with presence, not with action.
'She says she wants peace, but peace isn't found in rewriting history. Peace comes with truth and responsibility — and she's still avoiding both.'She can cry for headlines, but I lived it. And I'll never forget it.'He said later relations between him and his mother have been little better.'The last time I saw Cheryl was about ten years ago when I visited England with my wife.
'Our relationship before that had always been inconsistent—sometimes I'd call, sometimes we'd go years without speaking. I often received abusive letters or emails.'She's a narcissistic person who has never taken real responsibility for her actions. She's spent her life blaming others—her parents, her sister, my dad Robert, then Mike Mason, then Daniel.
'I've heard a hundred versions of why she ran off to Africa. Her justifications shift constantly. I honestly don't think she's capable of genuine accountability. She says the right things sometimes, but her actions never match her words.'
He said that reading Cheryl's account last week was 'incredibly frustrating'.'It began at a critical time in my life—those early, sensitive teenage years. I've tried for years to downplay it, to say 'every family has drama,' but through therapy I've had to accept that what Cheryl did was deeply damaging. I've suffered years of depression and anxiety as a result.'
'Reading the article as a father myself now, I find it shocking that she would do this again—rehashing the past for public consumption. It feels like she's learned nothing. Does she get some sort of kick from the attention? Is she really that lonely? The public may see a quirky story, but I see a selfish person who still hasn't grasped the damage she caused.
'I read the article's comments—many people call her foolish, and I agree. She was, and still is. In my opinion, she never should have had children.'
He said that his half-sister remains in contact with Cheryl and stands by her, while his brother moved to Canada in his early 20s and has maintained an on-off relationship with his mother.
He added: 'From what I've heard—mainly through Misti—he's also very upset about this recent article.'
He added: 'I'm at a point in my life where I've had to close that door. I have children of my own now, and my priority is protecting them and taking care of my own mental health. Cheryl is not someone I can have in my life, not the way she is.'I've worked hard to create something stable and healthy—everything I lacked growing up. I run my own business and live overseas with my wife and children.
'Being a father has made me even more aware of the damage caused by my own upbringing, and I've done a lot of personal work to make sure that cycle ends with me. My focus now is on giving my children the love, stability, and presence I never received.'
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