Colette Cheeseman marriage brought home to boyfriend Chris just what he was missing and the couple are now back together.
Colette Cheeseman isn’t the first woman to take revenge on an ex by bagging a better-looking bloke.
But when she decided to make her former boyfriend jealous, she ended up taking things much further than most jilted lovers.
After her other half Chris Burgess left her, she had a rebound romance with a worker in the Turkish resort she was staying in.
And rather than returning to reality after a two-week fling, she ended up marrying her holiday lover.
But astonishingly, even though she knew the marriage wouldn’t last, without making that commitment she’d never be where she is now – with Chris.
The marriage brought home to Chris just what he was missing and the couple are now back together – and have a baby son.
But it was a tortuous journey to a happy ending for Colette, as her Turkish marriage left her distraught and penniless.
Colette, 22, first met Ramazan Ildere in 2008 on a trip to Fethiye, Turkey, when she was still with Chris, 29.
Ramazan, 23, was one of the local men who worked at the resort. “He was tall, dark and handsome, there was no denying it,” she says. “But I was on holiday with my boyfriend and didn’t have eyes for anyone else.”
“Chris just said no and that he wanted to relax and Ramazan walked away looking crestfallen,” recalls Colette. “Chris muttered under his breath that Ramazan was annoying and I just said he was only doing his job.”
Colette thought nothing more of the brief meeting, but it just so happened to coincide with cracks appearing in her relationship with Chris, a bricklayer and stonemason.
“We were always bickering. We’d been together three years and were both immature. He warned me if I kept threatening to break up with him, one day he would leave.”
A month later, she came back to the home they shared in their hometown of Bournemouth to find Chris had packed and left.
“He’d called my bluff. I felt so stupid,” Colette says. “I’d thrown away something special and cried in my mum’s arms.”
After seeing her daughter heartbroken, Colette’s mum Carol, 54, suggested they go on holiday to help mend her broken heart.
“We decided to go to the same Turkish resort. Mum said I needed space to get over Chris and it seemed a great idea. Sandy beaches and sunshine, just what I needed.”
But even at the airport, she couldn’t take her mind off her ex-boyfriend and called him just before she boarded her flight.
“I asked him if he was sure he didn’t think we had a future,” Colette says. “And, in no uncertain terms, Chris said it was over.” After checking in to their Turkish hotel, Colette headed straight to the bar – only to bump into Ramazan.
“He asked where Chris was and I admitted we’d broken up,” says Colette. “I was so flattered Ramazan remembered me. He promised he’d make sure I had a fun holiday and I thought what I needed was a holiday romance.”
During the day, Colette and Carol spent their time lazing about the pool and in the evenings Ramazan took them clubbing.
One evening, Ramazan kissed Colette and it developed into a fling.
“It gave me a much needed confidence boost. When I left the UK, I missed Chris but when I left Turkey, I missed Ramazan.”
Back home, the pair kept in constant contact by phone and email and, six months later, Ramazan asked Colette to come back to Turkey and meet his family. But when she arrived, she was in for a shock. Their street was narrow, with huge families packed into tiny houses.
Colette recalls: “In my hot pants, vest top and shades, I stuck out like a sore thumb. Ramazan was so romantic, but his family weren’t very welcoming.”
Two weeks into her stay, Ramazan proposed. But when Colette phoned her mum to tell her she was engaged, Carol tried to persuade her to call it off.
Colette’s mind was made up though and in October 2009, her parents flew out for the big day, along with the bridesmaids, Colette’s sisters Jessica, 26, and Adele, 28.
Carol and her dad Brian, 56, gave Ramazan’s family £5,000 towards it as their wedding gift. But her family still had their doubts.
“As I was having my hair done on the morning of the wedding, my sister, Adele, told me I could still back out if I wanted to,” says Colette. “That just made me all the more determined.”
But as she walked down the aisle, she realised her family were right.
The realisation had finally hit her she was marrying the wrong man. A whirlwind romance with a good-looking Turkish hotel worker had seemed the perfect way to mend her broken heart and show her ex-boyfriend Chris what he was missing out on.
But as she said “I do” she knew she had taken her revenge too far. It was a mistake that would eventually lead her back into the arms of the man she really loved.
She admits: “Even though I had a sinking feeling I was making a mistake, I didn’t have the bottle to back out. I felt so overwhelmed.
“It was far from the fairytale I’d convinced myself it was. On our first night as man and wife, the house was so full of family we slept outside on the balcony. Not exactly romantic.”
After the wedding was over and her family returned to the UK, Colette was hit by the reality of her new life.
On their honeymoon, they spent the whole time in the hotel because public displays of affection are very much frowned upon in Turkey.
Things only got worse back at Ramzan’s cramped family home, which the couple shared with his mum, brother, sister-in-law and their baby.
“Any ideas I’d had that life would be filled with sunshine, sunbathing and cocktails were soon bashed,” Colette says. “Ramazan was always asking me for money. I didn’t feel I could say no, even though I was also paying his mum about 200 lira a fortnight in rent.”
When Colette ran out of money, her parents would put more into her account.
“They didn’t have much money themselves, but I didn’t have the heart to tell them Ramazan was spending all their money. I kidded myself that if my husband wanted money for cigarettes, I should help him out. I tried to ignore the fact he was always out with his friends.”
After a year of marriage, Ramazan left to do national service – compulsory for all men up to the age of 40 in Turkey – and for Colette things went from bad to worse.
“Suddenly his family started acting strange around me, whispering in Turkish. I’d try and understand what they were saying but my understanding of the language was too basic. I was so lonely and scared.”
One day, Colette sneaked out of the house and called Carol from a pay phone in town.
“At the sound of her voice I just fell apart,” Colette says. “I told her that I just wanted to come home as soon as possible.”
Carol offered to pay for her daughter’s flight home and Colette told Ramazan’s family she was going to visit relatives.
When her Turkish husband and his family realised she had left for good, they persistently called her – begging her to return. But there was no going back.
Arriving home in October 2011, her mum barely recognised her. “I’d dyed my hair black and lost so much weight,” says Colette. “I was so glad to be home.”
Determined to pay back her family, Colette got a job in telesales and worked overtime to help pay for her sister Adele’s wedding, because Carol and Brian couldn’t afford to. Colette says: “I felt so guilty. My stupidity meant my sister wouldn’t have her dream wedding. I gave her every penny I could.”
A month later, Colette was having dinner with friends when she spotted Chris, her ex-boyfriend.
“I froze. We’d had no contact since he’d told me at the airport that he didn’t want me and I’d gone off and married someone else.”
But her sister Jessica, knowing she still had feelings for Chris, emailed him asking if he’d have dinner with Colette and he agreed.
The couple got back together and finally in November last year Colette gave birth to their baby son Tyler.
Two months later, she filed for divorce and, to her relief, Ramazan signed the papers.
Colette says: “I was so foolish. I didn’t know Ramazan and rushed into a marriage that cost my parents £5,000.
They spent another £5,000 sending me money while I was away.
She admits that her feelings for Chris had never gone away – even when she was with Ramazan. But she tried to put them to the back of her mind.
“When I married someone else, it had made Chris realise how much he loved me,” says Colette. “So when Chris asked if we could try again, I was so glad.”
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