EXCLUSIVE: Woman dumped for Ukrainian refugee says ex has apologised
EXCLUSIVE: Jilted girlfriend dumped by the father of her two children for Ukrainian refugee says he has apologised over the affair but rules out ever getting back together with him after his new relationship broke down
- Lorna Garnett, 28, has spoken out for the first time since Tony left her for Sofiia
- She said the Ukrainian flirted with Tony throughout her 10-day stay at the house
- Lorna revealed she has been subject to abuse and strangers commenting on her
- Tony, 30, left his partner of 10 years to move in with Sofiia, 22, before they split
- Now single, he says he has had ‘quite a few offers’ but wants to focus on his kids
A British security guard who ran off with the Ukrainian refugee he gave a home to has said sorry to the former partner he ditched for his affair.
But Lorna Garnett, 28, said a reconciliation with the father of her two daughters, Tony, was not on the cards after he dumped his new lover.
She spoke out as she talked things over with Tony, 30, for the first time since he walked out on her to be with Sofiia Karkadym, 22, after she fled Ukraine and moved in with them.
In an exclusive interview with MailOnline, she also accused Sofiia of flirting with Tony during the ten days they all lived together.
She said: ‘I do love him, I respect him, he is the father of our beautiful daughters. But there is too much water under the bridge now.
‘We will always be friends and the best parents we can be to our girls, but I’ll be happy for him if he had a proper new relationship and I’m sure he’ll be happy if that happens for me.
‘Right now I am trying to recover from this whole thing and understand how I let this woman into my house.’
Tony Garnett, 30, left the mother of his two children, 28-year-old Lorna Garnett (pictured), for Ukrainian refugee Sofiia Karkadym after 10 days. He has now broken up with Sofiia, but Lorna said she ‘wouldn’t have him back in a million years’
Lorna told MailOnline she still ‘loves and respects’ Tony, but has ruled out ever getting back together with him
Tony Garnett, 30, left his partner for Ukrainian refugee Sofiia Karkadym, 22, after 10 days of her living with them
Sofiia Karkadym is arrested by police after trying to kick down the front door of her British lover who dumped her. She told the MailOnline she is ‘lost’ and still had feelings for Tony
Tony Garnett at his Bradford home with his ex-girlfriend’s luggage and belongings in bin liners waiting to be collected
Lorna revealed she was prescribed anti-depressants in the aftermath of her relationship breaking down
Speaking of her anguish after their split, she added: ‘This has affected my mental health. As soon as the kids were in bed and asleep, I just sat here and cried and cried.
‘I had been strong for the kids until they were asleep and then I’d break down and it’s been like that every night.
‘I hardly ever slept. I would always think about why he has done it and why she has done it.
‘I began to ask questions about myself, things like whether I’d put on weight since I’d had the babies.
‘I realised that we hardly ever went out together because of the children.
‘There were no such things like date nights or time for ourselves and I wondered if I had just got boring for him.
‘I went to the doctors because I thought maybe it was me who was mentally on stable.
‘It really got to me. I was over-thinking things and I was prescribed the anti-depressant Sertraline.
‘I was on it for two days and then I stopped taking them because we were on the front pages and I realised I wasn’t being irrational, and what I have seen was the truth.
‘He had left me for her and it was all put into perspective. The first articles said that Sofi had said that she had fancied him the first time she had seen him at the airport.
‘She said that she could see how unhappy he was at home and that she felt sorry for him.
‘Sofiia was just saying that. We never discussed our relationship with her at any time at all. There was no reason to believe that we were unhappy to be honest.’
Tony moved out with Sofiia in May this year just ten days after she moved into live with him and his partner of nearly ten years Lorna at their home in Bradford, West Yorkshire.
He ended his four-month relationship with her after a furious bust-up last Saturday when she allegedly used a knife to stab the wall of their rented home in Bradford.
She was arrested and taken away by police who warned her not to go back to the property.
But MailOnline told exclusively yesterday how Sofiia went back to the cottage they used to share and kicked the door on Monday evening while screaming: ‘Tony, I love you’.
Police were called again by neighbours and she fled by jumping over a wall before officers found her hiding under a nearby hedge and arrested her for a second time, but she was released without charge.
Tony was able to meet up with Lorna and told her, ‘I am sorry’ after she contacted her lawyers to ask a judge to lift a ‘non-molestation’ order granted to her against him.
Lorna said her torment had been increased by other parents talking about her break-up with Tony at the school gates in front of her two daughters, aged six and three.
She said: ‘They would say things like, ‘Look it’s her whose man has gone off with so-and-so’.
‘People would say things like they hoped I wouldn’t take him back and stuff like that and the kids are stood right next to me, and although they are very young, they’re very smart and pick up a lot of things easily. I worried how it might affect them too.
‘They would ask me “Where is daddy mummy, what has daddy done?”
Sofiia Karkadym (pictured) arrived in the UK at the start of May after fleeing the war in Ukraine
The couple were making plans to visit Sofiia’s family back in Ukraine so that Tony can formally ask her father for his daughter’s hand in marriage. Tony has said their relationship is over
Tony dumped Sofiaa after accusing her of not being able to handle alcohol and using a knife to damage a wall at their rented home in Bradford (pictured)
‘It hasn’t been easy for them either and I’m hoping that now Tony has seen some sense and left her, things will all die down.
‘But nothing can prepare you for being on the front pages of newspapers. It was a massive shock that Tony left and then you have to deal with it being national news.
‘I was brought up old-fashioned. I’m the sort of woman who insures that her man’s tea is on the table when he comes home from work and I look after the bairns.
‘I had a quiet life until Sofiia came along and now everything has changed. It’s not good.’
Lorna was initially impressed with the young Ukrainian refugee when she arrived at their home after Tony had picked her up from Manchester Airport.
She said: ‘She were lovely and sweet. The first thing she did when she jumped out the car was to come and give me a cuddle.
‘She started crying and I started crying because it were nice, something nice to do.
‘I took her out shopping and bought her everything she needed feminine wise.
‘And a couple of days later, I took her out to Primark and bought her loads of clothes because she had absolutely nothing.
‘She was proper chuffed and happy. And we became friends. She taught me how to cook some Ukrainian dishes, like dumplings.’
Lorna said she first noticed what she described as ‘strange behaviour’ when Sofiia would smarten herself up just before Tony would arrive home from his job as a hospital security guard.
She said: ‘She would lounge around all day in her dressing gown or hoodie and then just before Tony came in, she would change into smart clothes and put all her make up on.
‘She was very flirty with him and at first I thought she was just being young and friendly, but then after a few days I realised she had her eyes set on him.
‘I knew something was wrong. Call it a woman’s instinct if you like. I knew she was trying to come onto him.
‘And then during the daytime when he was at work, she stopped talking to me. I began to realise she saw me as her rival. I knew then that she fancied him.
‘But I would never have imagined that Tony would have left me and his daughters and not just for her, but for anybody.
‘It is just not him. He’s not like that. He’s a fantastic father and has been very good to me. It was a total shock.
‘But she turned his head. When he would come home from work she was all full of joy and would say things like “Oh Tony, oh Tony” to him.
‘She would tell him that she was making his tea that night, but I already made the food. It did annoy me because she had seen me cooking. It was a red flag.’
Lorna said that another wake-up call for her was on the first Sunday, a few days after the Ukrainian arrived.
Tony, Sofiia and Lorna and some friends were sitting in the garden and he moved his chair out of the sunlight as he was feeling warm, and she picked up her chair and moved it right next to him away from the group.
The next day Tony visited his parents and Sofiia insisted on accompanying him. She then asked them if she could stay with them as she was uncomfortable at Lorna’s home.
Tony told Lorna that he felt it his duty to stay at his parents with her as he had sponsored her trip to Britain.
The first night he stayed in his parents’ caravan at the front of their home, but the next day he shared a bed with Sofiia and their relationship began, only for Lorna to discover the affair and throw them both out.
Then the relationship became front page news and Lorna said her life changed forever.
Tony took his new love to London for a week, and a week later came to pick up his bags, but he and Lorna exchanged few words and only met in a family court room over access rights for him to see their children.
Pictures of Lorna and Tony were splashed across newspapers and on television and both suffered internet abuse.
Lorna revealed that she saw early signs that Sofiia was a heavy drinker on their first trip together to a supermarket, when she put a bottle of wine and four beers into her basket
She also bought a bottle of whiskey and drank it in two days. The empty bottles were left under Sofiia ‘s bed.
Lorna added: ‘She is a very flirty woman 100 per cent and clearly likes a drink too.
‘She would brush up against Tony and the way she had a laugh with him was different and she had more eye contact with him.
‘I do see myself as a victim. I haven’t done anything wrong at all. All I did was open my home to a woman in need of help.
‘Today I were on the bus and these two women pointed at me and said, “Oh that’s that woman whose man left her”.
‘It has become easier because I have come to terms with it all.
‘I love Tony because he the father of my two kids, but I’m not in love with him anymore.
‘I was still madly in love with him, when she went, and he went.
‘But I suppose, in some ways she has done me a favour. Because he says he thought the relationship was dead when he left with her.
‘I hadn’t realised that we weren’t like a couple should be. But now I know that it may have happened down the line with either one of us with someone else.
‘Or we could have both just lived an unhappy life and stayed together for the sake of the children. But that doesn’t always work.’
Lorna said she felt good at the news that her ex-partner had dumped the Ukrainian refugee.
‘It’s great that they have broken up because I was worried about how long it would carry on in the newspapers.’ she said
‘I hope this will all be over soon and we get some peace. It affects your mental health.’
Lorna added: ‘When we were going to court, the judge said to us that if there were any more articles, then we could be fined or jailed.
‘A few days later, I walked into our local Asda and Sofiia was on the cover of two magazines. She had sold her story.
‘Anthony is not gonna go to the newspapers because he is a good dad, and he had listened to the judge. But it was down to her. She then started going to magazines.’
Lorna made front-page news this week, when it was reported that she had told friends she would never accept Tony back ‘in a million years’.
But she said: ‘I have never spoken about Tony to anybody, not to my family or any of my friends. So I don’t know how people can say, I would say such a thing.
‘I don’t think we will ever get back together, but we will be best friends. We will always have our daughters and we’re going to give them the best Christmas ever.’
Tony pictured with Sofiia after the couple left his family home and moved in together
The couple (right) later moved into a rented house with another Ukrainian couple, also refugees
Heavily-tattooed Tony said: ‘We need to put this whole episode behind us and be great parents for our girls.
‘I just need some time for me now as well. To evaluate what is going on.
‘I’m not going to get into a relationship with anybody, although I’ve had quite a few offers on the Internet with people even sending me nude pictures of themselves.
‘I need to find a job in security and carry on making my rap music. I need to be a good dad and give Lorna all the support that she needs.
‘It were a huge mistake getting into a relationship with Sofiia. I do regret it. I regret that I’ve caused pain to Lorna and it’s affecting my family.
‘But as I said before, I felt (my relationship) was over with Lorna and I hadn’t found a way out. Sofiia helped me with that. But I never want to see her.’
Sofiia told MailOnline yesterday of her devastation at her split from Tony, saying : ‘I am lost. I am heartbroken and I still have feelings for Tony.
‘I have nobody here. No home, and no money. I have no friends. I am staying here in a disgusting place which the police have put me into in Bradford.’
She said she had been warned by police not to contact Tony, either by telephone, messaging or personally, and if she broke those conditions she would be re-arrested and charged.
The blonde IT manager was held by police under suspicion of coercive and controlling behaviour, but Tony urged police not to press charges.
She added: ‘ I never hurt Tony. I never attacked him. I was very upset about somethings regarding his partner, Lorna and their children.
‘But he promised he will look after me and make everything alright.
‘We were going to get married, but I knew that he could not have any more children (he has had a vasectomy which he stated he was going to reverse) and I thought we could have kids in five or six years’ time.
‘But now I don’t not know what to do. I will probably go back. But I am very upset.
‘I dreamed of my life with Tony. I do not understand how this has happened.
‘He hasn’t allowed me to go to our own house and got me arrested twice because I wanted to talk to him in private.
‘He broke up with me through a message and has thrown me out on the streets and doesn’t care where I am of if I am safe.
‘He is showing a completely different face to what he was showing before.
‘Tony says that he wants to help people, but he doesn’t care about his partner and he has just thrown me out.’
She admitted stabbing the wall of the home she shared with Tony, but said the incident, happened two-months-ago, rather than on Saturday night as she and her former lover were celebrating his 30th birthday.
Sofiia added: ‘I was just angry because of the situation with his wife (partner and mother of his two daughters).
‘He didn’t seem to care about us, about our future, he was always talking about his children. He f*****d up our relationship.’
She revealed that she had fled Ukraine after having been in a violent relationship, where her jaw was broken, by a former Ukrainian partner.
Sofiia claimed that she was unsure how she would be able to settle back in Ukraine while the country was at war with Russia.
Her visa which gives her emergency refugee status for six months, expires in a few weeks.
Tony told MailOnline: ‘It is the perfect storm. Her visa runs out and she’s got nothing here in this country. She’s not with me anymore and she’s got no reason to stay.
‘I did not want her to be charged with anything. I think she has been through a lot and you have to at least sympathise with the fact that she’s from a country which has been invaded.
‘She is from Lviv which hasn’t really been affected as much as other parts of Ukraine. So hopefully she’ll be safe back with her family.
Describing how Sofiia kicked his door, he said: ‘I feared this might happen, that she would turn up at the house when she had been warned by the police not to.
‘She was kicking the front door and shouting and screaming and I tried to talk to her. I had to tell her why our relationship was over.
‘In those few minutes I told her that I was scared of what she might do after I’d seen her ram a knife into the wall in the kitchen several times while she was drunk.
‘I am a security guard and I can look after myself, but I don’t like violence. And I was worried that she gets very angry.
‘It was my 30th birthday at the weekend and she ruined it by getting very aggressive after drinking too much and then the incident with a knife happened in the kitchen.
‘I have decided that I don’t want to be in a relationship with her anymore.
‘I have to put my daughters first. She hates the idea that I’ve got two children with my ex-partner Lorna.
‘She was always slagging Lorna off, who has done absolutely nothing to her and took her into her home.
‘It was my decision to leave Lorna and begin a new relationship with Sophia. Lorna isn’t and never has been at fault.
‘All that is over and Sofiia has to accept that.’
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