EastEnders star Cheryl Fergison hits back at trolls mocking her marriage as she compared herself to rocker Mick Jagger.
The 56-year-old actress, best known for playing Heather Trott on the BBC One soap for five years, met Yassine el Jamouni online in 2010, and their romance was immediately criticised as Cheryl was 21 years older than her toyboy lover.
She travelled to his hometown of Agadir, Morocco, and by 2011, the lovebirds had tied the knot, but they faced unfair comments about their union from trolls.
Her husband was accused of being a gold digger, but Cheryl has now hit back at the cruel taunts, and compared her love life to that of Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger.
The rocker, 78, has dated a series of younger women, and is currently in a relationship with Melanie Hamrick, who is 43 years his junior.
“It seems to be quite cool for the men, like Mick Jagger, to date younger. And it seems okay for them to have someone else two years later,” she told the Mirror.
“But people don’t give any kudos to a woman dating someone younger, even though we’ve been together 11 years.
“Well we don’t care. It really is absolutely water off a duck’s back to us now. I just feel sorry for them, that they need to criticise our life,” Cheryl explained.
She blasted those who poured scorn on her relationship as “cynical”, and wished that more people had been more accepting of their love.
“People think it’s got to be a con, it’s got to be a problem. But I say, ‘It hasn’t got to be anything. Just stop it!’” she fumed.
Yassine is her second husband, as she split from Jamshed Saddiqui, who hails from Afghanistan, in 2008 after eight years of marriage. The couple share a son, Alex, 22.
Cheryl said she has faced “racism and sexism” over her marriage to Yassine, but has defied the critics with her enduring love for her younger man, and the couple have even moved to the seaside to start a new chapter of their life together.
They moved with her son to Lytham St Anne’s on the Lancashire coast, and she says having her own independence has been crucial to a successful marriage.
“It’s healthy to have the lives that we have. He’s not by my side everywhere I go. It works for us. I am me, Yas is Yas. Alex is Alex and we are a family,” she said.
