EastEnders star Cheryl Fergison reveals the devastating moment she found her husband in a ‘dingy love nest’ with another woman – before discovering he’d left her ‘penniless’

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Cheryl Fergison, once a prominent figure on EastEnders, shared a heart-wrenching story about finding out her spouse was unfaithful. She traced him to a secluded love hideout that seemed rather unremarkable and humble, which was perhaps why it slipped under her radar initially.

In a turn of events, the well-recognized actress who played the character of unfortunate Heather Trott on the BBC soap opera, ended her marriage to Jamshed Saddiqi in 2008, following public revelations about his affair with another woman.

59-year-old Fergison openly acknowledges that she had to perform diligent investigative work in order to ultimately reveal the truth after accumulating weeks of increasing doubts, along with a steadily expanding collection of hints.

In her recently published memoir titled “Behind The Scenes”, the actress confessed that she became suspicious after noticing a strange scent of perfume in her son Alex’s car, who is 25 years old and was born from her marriage to Saddiqi, an Afghan refugee.

‘She notes that after fastening her seatbelt, a delicate, flowery, powdery fragrance – distinctly not her own – wafted towards her.’

Ferguson states that her ex-husband tried to dismiss an unpleasant scent as “a friend’s cologne,” but things took a turn for the worse when the actress discovered an unfamiliar number on their phone bill.

Upon making the first call and hearing a female voice respond, Fergison was taken aback when he discovered that Saddiqi responded on his second attempt to the same number instead.

In her writing, it’s stated that she started having doubts about her husband being unfaithful. However, she made an effort to disregard these suspicions and believe otherwise.

Eventually, the actress managed to discover the location where her husband was rendezvousing with his mistress. When she trailed him to this hidden spot, she was left bewildered by the shabby, hastily constructed love den that she found.

In that very spot, sitting on the unclean bed I once slept on with my spouse, was a slender blonde woman, casually drinking a vibrant blue WKD as if it were an ordinary occurrence, she remembers.

Jay was by her side, frozen under a glaring spotlight, yet remained speechless and reluctant to offer any form of acknowledgement or concession. No apologies were forthcoming, no clarification given, and not even the slightest hint of remorse showed.

That evening, I organized the vehicle, secured Alex safely in his car seat, and embarked on a journey towards London. Simultaneously, I left behind my marriage and Jay.

Three years post my divorce, I experienced another devastating setback when I found out that the brief union had left me financially drained. As a lifestyle advisor, I can’t stress enough the importance of understanding the financial implications of any significant relationship or marriage.

For five years, I continuously gave him the money, but during that time, he failed to hand over even a single pound to HMRC.

All that I’d constructed, accumulated, and labored over was lost. A sentiment I seldom express, given its weight, but in this instance, my feelings were intense and raw – I loathed him.

She noted: ‘Running out of funds becomes particularly distressing when one is renowned, as people tend to assume that you possess substantial wealth.’

Many believe you’re wealthy, unaware of the financial struggles you face such as excessive overdrafts, maxed-out credit cards, payday loans, and towering bills. However, that was the reality I confronted myself with.

Currently, the actress resides with her second spouse, Yassine Al-Jermoni, in Blackpool. Initially, complications with visas hindered the move of this Moroccan citizen to the UK following their marriage to Fergison in 2011.

For nearly a decade, Al-Jermoni stayed in his homeland, Morocco. This period was marked by extraordinary events – an earth-shattering earthquake, the relief efforts that followed, and the global spread of the coronavirus, each presenting extra challenges for him.

In an interview with OK! Magazine, she shared that they strive to maintain privacy regarding their business affairs, but admitted that the process of obtaining visas can be financially challenging. Nevertheless, they have successfully established themselves, now based in Blackpool, affectionately known as the ‘Vegas of the North’, and are comfortably settled there.

In contrast to her fictional character Heather Trott who often faced bad luck in relationships, the actress herself found herself swept up in a passionate romance with her second husband whom she met online in the year 2010.

She soon jetted out to his hometown of Agadir and they got hitched by the following June.

Previously, Fergison kept her identity hidden from Al-Jermoni, who is five months younger than her, for a period of five months, even after they had begun communicating online.

In a conversation with Loose Women back in 2017, the soap actress confessed that her relationship with her second spouse was reminiscent of traditional, old-style courtships.

She mentioned that they first connected online, exchanging messages through a computer, even speaking over it. However, she found it quite antiquated.

1) “We hadn’t discussed my profession, as I never showed him a photograph of myself. Our conversations continued for about five months until we finally met in person.

‘I saw him and it was like “ping”. I knew he was the man I was going to marry.’ 

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2025-08-25 02:05