A British dad who ditched his partner and mum to his children to be with the Ukrainian refugee they housed, has now invited a Ukrainian couple into his new home.
Tony Garnett, 29, from Bradford, West Yorkshire made headlines across the world when he left his partner Lorna to start a new relationship with Sofiia Karkadym.
Sofiia, 22, an IT worker from Lyiv, Ukraine, had fled the Russian invasion and organised to stay with the former couple on Facebook in May.
But within days Lorna, 28, became suspicious of the growing closeness between Sofiia and Tony and was left "heartbroken" when they ran off together to start a new life.
Now, Tony and Sofiia have set up a new home that they are renting together in Bradford and have begun sharing their place with a refugee couple - another Sofia, and her boyfriend, Illia.
The couple extended the invite to Sofia and Illia after spotting an internet plea for help from the pair, who had arrived as refugees from Ukraine on June 23, the Mail Online reports.
They had posted an appeal on Facebook stating they were being booted out of the Bradford home they had been invited into by a British family after they fled their home country.
Sofia said she was glad their hosts had helped her and Illia out of their former situation, where they had been “very unhappy”.
“We have been told off for leaving doors open and letting the cats escape. It has been very hot and we were not even allowed to open the windows in case the cats escaped,” she said.
The couple had slept on a small sofa bed which was “very uncomfortable” and were made to do their hosts’ washing, laundry and cleaning, she claimed, adding that it hadn’t felt right.
She said that as refugees, they had nowhere else to go and could have been “killed” if they went back to Ukraine.
“My hometown is Kremenchuk the same place where the Russians bombed a mall and killed many people last month,” she said.
'It is very dangerous there. We knew the Russians were close and our parents asked us to leave for our safety. Illia and I went to Warsaw and then we came here at Leeds Bradford Airport.”
The pair thought they would be happy in the UK, and now loved Yorkshire, but Sofia said it had initially been very difficult for them.
Illia, who worked in a coffee shop as a barista, also spoke of the couple’s difficulties at their last accommodation.
They had been in need of some comfort and understanding, he said, and so had welcomed Tony and Sofiia’s invite to share their home.
Tony, who had been subject to online abuse since entering into a relationship with Sofiia, said the public’s perspective of him as someone who “hops from bed to bed” couldn’t be further from the truth.
His relationship with Lorna had broken down some years before, he said, claiming the pair had been living as brother and sister.
Sofiia’s arrival had seen him become happier, he said, adding that he was going to make her his wife.
He claimed that while people had told him that he was “some sort of celebrity now” and that he should “go on Love Island ”, he had no need as he had already found love.
He also claimed that “online cowards” suggested he may “try it on with the new Sofia”, something he denied.
Illia, whose parents were sales managers, said it was good to have two people living with them who speak Ukrainian, so he didn’t feel so lonely and miss home.
He was now able to talk in Ukrainian, he said, and was able to discuss how their country needed help and what they could do.
He spoke of being worried about his family and his and Sofia’s desire to work when they were set up with National Insurance numbers.
The shared rent would be welcomed by Sofiia and Tony, who claimed they have been left 'surviving on nowt' after he lost his business and became Sofiia's full time carer when she contracted an eye infection which left her partially blind.
Last week Tony 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 once ran a security firm which boasted NHS contracts but he says he lost those contracts when journalists and paparazzi showed up at his place of work, leaving health service officials worried.
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."
Tony claims he was paid up until the end of the month before being told he needed to find new ways to make money.
