Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husbandRichard has gushed he is “looking forward to a new life” with his wife when she touches down in the UK.
Standing next to his seven-year-old daughter Gabriella, the overjoyed husband said he was “deeply grateful” for his wife’s release after she spent six years detained in Iran.
Although he admitted the family can’t “get back the time they’ve lost”, he insisted they will try to “live in the future” when she returns home.
Mr Ratcliffe said: “It’s been an anxious few days and there have been some scary conversations around people instructing her that she will be well behaved when she gets back.
“But it’s going to be lovely to see her and catch up with her. We’re looking forward to starting a new life.”
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe is due to return to the UK on Wednesday at around 10.30pm after being handed over to British authorities in Iran.
The UK secured her release after paying a debt of almost £400million to the Iranian government which dated back to the 1980s.
Ahead of her return, Mr Ratcliffe added: “There will probably be a couple of days of peace and quiet somewhere else, and then back here.
"The first thing she wanted was for me to make her a cup of tea, so we will do that. I think actually we were looking at the house and it needs a bit of tidying, so there might be a bit of tidying, perhaps directed by mummy when she comes back."
Mr Ratcliffe also said he had been kept out of discussions relating to the unpaid debt to Iran.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who holds dual British-Iranian citizenship, was arrested in 2016 on trumped up charges of plotting against the regime.
She served five years in an Iranian prison and she has spent the past year on parole at her parents’ home in Tehran in fear she could be sent back to jail at any time.
On Tuesday, she was handed back her British passport and she was reportedly told a flight would be “arranged for her” on Wednesday so she could rejoin her husband and daughter in Hampstead.
Her local MP Tulip Siddiq posted a picture of Mrs Zaghari Ratcliffe from her plane as she finally made her way back to the UK.
It's been 6 long years - and I can't believe I can FINALLY share this photo.
— Tulip Siddiq (@TulipSiddiq) March 16, 2022
Nazanin is now in the air flying away from 6 years of hell in Iran.
My heart goes out to Gabriella and Richard, as her long journey back home to them gets closer by the minute.#NazaninIsFree ❤️ pic.twitter.com/BzEEBP840C
She said: “It’s been 6 long years - and I can’t believe I can finally share this photo. Nazanin is now in the air flying away from 6 years of hell in Iran.
“My heart goes out to Gabriella and Richard, as her long journey back home to them gets closer by the minute.”
British–Iranian businessman Anoosheh Ashoori, who was detained in the country in August 2017, has also been released.
Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss confirmed Iranian-American businessman Morad Tahbaz, who was born in the UK, had also been released from prison in Iran on furlough.
