A UK dad who fell for a Ukrainian refugee and ditched his long-term girlfriend says the pair are “surviving with nowt” – after he lost his job because of the furore around his new relationship.
Blonde Ukrainian Sofiia Karkadym, 22, arrived at Tony and Lorna Garnett’s door two months ago after fleeing the city of Lviv, which was under attack from Russian forces. Tony picked Sofiia up from Manchester Airport on May 4 after organising the arrangement for weeks with Tony, which Lorna opposed.
Ten days later, Tony and the Ukrainian stunner had announced their intentions, and fast forward to present day and Tony has lost his job because of the media circus around the relationship. Tony from Bradford, West Yorkshire, told the Daily Star : “I’ve been trying to get by and survive with Sofiia with nowt.
"I want to show people that I’m not a scrounger for government benefits, I know what is right.
“I used to have a very successful business. I’ve dedicated myself to it, some weeks I put over 80 hours a week into it.
“As of now, she’s my priority. She needs my care.”
Tony said that he ran a security firm that had NHS contracts that he subsequently lost because of journalists and paparazzi showing up at his place of work, worrying health service officials.
He said: “Now and again I’m sending door staff to pubs and clubs but I’ve gone from earning nearly 2k a week to earning jack s*** because of media turning up to where my door staff are and trying to get my number because I locked my social media profiles.
“NHS said that because I’m now apparently a ‘public figure’ in the public eye they class it as a risk for me to be at any of these places. I’m not a public figure, I’m just an outspoken individual.”
That was in April, and Tony said they paid him until the end of the month before he needed to find new ways to make money.
“I’ve lived off what I’ve been paid by newspapers. I’ve maxed credit cards out, I’ve been helped out by family members,” he added.
He can’t even put furniture in the rental property he now lives in with Sofiia, he said. However, Tony is looking to move into “music or comedy” and even released a song based on his relationship with Sofiia, called ‘Ukraine to UK Rain’.
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