Stevie was just 11 when Cheryl traded suburban life for mud hut in Kenya – now he reveals how classmates mocked him with newspapers while teachers laughed along
A son whose mother abandoned her family to marry a Masai warrior she met on holiday has broken his silence on how it “destroyed” his childhood – revealing even his teachers joined in the cruel mockery he faced at school.
Stevie Liddington, now 43, was just 11 years old when his mother Cheryl Thomasgood, then 34, jetted off from the Isle of Wight to marry Daniel Lekimencho – a 6ft 2in Kenyan warrior ten years her junior whom she’d met weeks earlier at the Bamburi Beach Hotel in Mombasa.
Now living in Seoul, South Korea with his own wife and children, Stevie hasn’t spoken to his mother in a decade. In an emotional interview, he revealed he is “ashamed to call her my mother” and feels “deeply disgusted” by her recent attempts to portray herself as a victim.
‘She Ruined Our Childhoods’
Stevie’s powerful testimony comes after Cheryl, now 65, broke her silence earlier this month claiming she felt used as a “meal ticket” by the Masai warrior and expressing regret about her actions.
But her son isn’t buying it.
My mother did not just abandon her family in the 1990s – she ruined our childhoods,” Stevie told the Mail. She left behind three children, including me, and never looked back in any meaningful or supportive way.
The web designer added with raw emotion: “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.
School Became Living Hell
The trauma of abandonment was only the beginning of Stevie’s ordeal. When news of his mother’s bizarre romance hit the headlines, the 11-year-old became a target of relentless bullying.
“At school, classmates brought in newspapers to laugh at me. Teachers stood by or laughed along. I was publicly humiliated,” he revealed.
But while her son endured daily torment, where was Cheryl?
“Chasing cameras. Giving interviews. Writing a book,” Stevie said bitterly. “She didn’t ask how we were. She didn’t check in. Our family crumbled.”
The Nightmare Before Kenya
Stevie’s revelations paint a picture of a troubled childhood long before Daniel entered their lives. His father, Robert Liddington, had left when he was just five, triggering what Stevie described as a mental breakdown in his mother.
The situation became so dire that Stevie and his younger brother were temporarily placed in foster care after witnessing scenes “no child should ever witness” – including, he claimed, Cheryl holding a knife to her own neck.
A brief period of stability came when Cheryl married her second husband, Mike Mason, who Stevie credited with stepping up for the family. But that happiness was “shattered beyond repair with one phone call” – when Cheryl announced from Kenya she was never coming home.
Left to Parent His Half-Sister
Cheryl and Daniel welcomed a daughter, Misti, in 1998, but Stevie revealed he was often left to care for the infant when his mother would disappear for days.
I remember walking around the local area for hours searching for her, praying she was still alive,” he recalled of those dark days.
He described Cheryl’s relationship with the warrior as “violent” and “chaotic” – a far cry from the romantic adventure story she had sold to the media.
The Great Escape That Went Wrong
Cheryl had traded her comfortable middle-class existence for a mud hut in rural Kenya, where she helped her new partner cook, clean and hunt while sleeping on goatskin and surviving on a diet of cow’s blood and cabbage.
The couple returned to the Isle of Wight in 1995 and married on Valentine’s Day, both wearing traditional Masai clothing. But the marriage collapsed in 1999, just four years later.
Now living alone in a seaside town in Somerset, Cheryl has kept her controversial past hidden from her community. None of her friends are aware of her history with the Masai warrior.
Brothers Scattered Across Globe
The family devastation is complete – Stevie’s brother has relocated to Canada and, like Stevie, maintains minimal contact with their mother. While Misti reportedly stays in touch with Cheryl without bad blood, Stevie is adamant about keeping the door firmly closed.
“She should never have been a mother,” he said of the woman he branded “narcissistic.”
Cheryl’s Version
In her recent interview, Cheryl claimed Daniel became obsessed with wealth after arriving in the UK, transforming from a spiritual guide into someone fixated on material possessions.
She blamed their split on cultural differences and Daniel’s inability to adapt to British life, saying the only time he seemed happy was “jumping around in the garden doing his traditional Masai dance.”
Cheryl also revealed she had suffered sexual abuse as a child and grew up in a dysfunctional London household with alcoholic parents. She claimed she was contemplating suicide when she met Daniel and saw him as an answer to her problems.
“I made a huge mistake, it was very wrong of me, and I have a lot of regrets, especially about how it damaged my children,” she said.
The Final Word
But for Stevie, these expressions of regret ring hollow – too little, too late from a woman who chose adventure over her children.
As he puts it: “She’s never taken accountability properly.”
For a son who spent his childhood searching the streets for his missing mother and enduring mockery in school corridors, some wounds simply run too deep to heal.
