WALKING down the aisle with the man of her dreams, Dawn Ottewell believed she had found her happy ever after.
Despite their 36-year age gap and the fact that they met only days earlier, the granny, 66, believed Nigerian toyboy Bright Emokpae, 30, was deeply in love with her.
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But now the heartbroken pensioner, from Dewsbury, West Yorks, says the whirlwind romance cost her thousands and tells the Sun: “It was the biggest mistake I ever made.”
Dawn feels taken advantage of by her estranged hubby, who she fell for after signing up for dating sites including Tinder and Plenty of Fish, and wed in Cyprus in 2023.
Bright has denied all allegations made by Dawn.
In an exclusive interview, Dawn revealed: “It was the biggest mistake I ever made. I’ve spent thousands since we met and he kept on asking me to hand over more and more money.
“I’m a fool and I know I’ve been a fool, but I was in love and he took advantage of that. This all started when I was lonely and depressed during the pandemic.
“My daughter encouraged me to go on Tinder and Plenty of Fish to meet a man, and it all spiralled from there. The next thing I knew, I was flying to Cyprus to get married.”
Granny-of-seven and a mum-of-three, Dawn has a number of serious health conditions, and she was living on Universal Credit when she first braved online dating in 2021.
We seemed to have a lot in common, and we had a lot of laughs, and the sex was good the very first time
Dawn Ottewell
She was immediately besieged by messages from scam artists promising love, romance and small fortunes if she would forward money to countries including Nigeria.
However, amidst all the suitors, one man stood out. Bright initially presented himself as a professional called Brian Thomas in his mid-30s, according to Dawn.
It was only when they switched the conversation to the WhatsApp messenger service that he revealed his true identity – she claims – and the fact that he was 36 years her junior.
Dawn said: “That’s when I found out he was from Benin in Nigeria. It was a bit of a red flag, but he was wooing me and saying all the right things. He was romancing me.
“He said he found me very attractive and he was very sorry he did not tell me the full truth immediately. He said he wanted to be true and not lie to me.
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“He said he was in Northern Cyprus on a student visa, and I was stupid, but I fell for him.
“He made me feel special and so alive. He told me I was the loveliest lady he had ever met and that I made his heart go ‘boom boom.’
“He would video call me, and I thought he was attractive. I did think he was a bit young but he did something to me and made me feel so special.
“I was going through a bad time at home. I was on Universal Credit, and my health wasn’t good, so I had nothing and I was feeling very down.
“I was living with my daughter Kirsty Jackson, who is 32 and has a 14-month-old baby, but we weren’t getting on.
“Bright was a shoulder to cry on, and when he asked me to go to Cyprus, I leapt at the opportunity. I saw him as an escape route from all the pain back home.”
Dawn flew to Northern Cyprus in March 2022, just as the pandemic was coming to an end.
I did feel a bit pushed, and I asked him if he wanted to marry me for a visa, but he said no, he was just desperate to be with me. I wanted to be happy, so I agreed
Dawn Ottewell
Bright paid for a taxi to collect her from the airport and transport her to his bed and breakfast hotel.
She continued: “He was so happy to see me, and everything was amazing at first. On the first night, he ordered a takeaway at the bed and breakfast he was staying in and he was all over me.
“We seemed to have a lot in common, and we had a lot of laughs, and the sex was good the very first time. He was talking about how much he loved me and wanted to get married, but he didn’t have enough money.
“I did feel a bit pushed, and I asked him if he wanted to marry me for a visa, but he said no, he was just desperate to be with me. I wanted to be happy, so I agreed.
“It took a while for the documentation to come through, but on 23 March we married at a registry office with his Turkish friends as the best man and maid of honour.
“I didn’t tell anyone in my family as I knew they wouldn’t approve.”
Bright’s response
BRIGHT denied using a different name when he first met Dawn on Facebook.
He said: “I married Dawn because I was in love with her. I didn’t care when people told me she was too old, because we had agreed to adopt a child together and she was my wife.
“I was a fashion designer in Nigeria and she did send me a little bit of money, £50 here and there. But it was Dawn that convinced me to fly to the UK on a spouse visa.
“I wanted to travel here on a student visa. She paid about £400 towards my £900 flight but I never forced her to give me money, she did it of her own free will.
“Once we got a house together, I was paying the water and council tax bills.
“The relationship ended when she kicked me out of the house and I have been very down since then. This has not been easy on me either.”
Dawn returned home to Dewsbury while Bright flew back to Nigeria to sort out a spouse visa to live with her in Britain, which finally came through a year later.
It was when he finally touched down at Heathrow Airport that Dawn began to have serious concerns about their unconventional romance.
She said: “When I met him at the airport, he said ‘Hi’ and put his arm around me, and that was it. When we got home, he said he was tired and wanted to go to bed.
“I thought it was strange behaviour. Back in Nigeria, he had been video calling me and telling me how much he loved me every day.
“I tried to make it work. My brother Rory, who is 71, helped him get a manufacturing job at a local company, and I would talk to him about how relationships work in the UK.
“But Bright told me that in Nigeria, the wife does everything the husband tells her to do and that she has to pay for everything.
“He kept asking for money, claiming he was still in debt from the wedding. I was not putting up with that. I told him so, and we started arguing constantly.
“Also, the sex was not good once he got to the UK. It was all about him and what he wanted; there was no foreplay. It was not long before I realised I had made a big mistake.”
The couple separated in October 2023, only to get back together six months later when Dawn was given a £63,000 payout following a botched prolapse operation she underwent at an NHS hospital.
My advice to anyone thinking of going on a dating site is, be very careful
Dawn Ottewell
She said: “We started renting a place together on a six-month contract and he was paying half the rent and bills and the council tax, but he was also sending a lot of money back home to Nigeria.
“I got all new furniture, and he didn’t put a penny towards it and when we went out for dinner, it was usually me picking up the bill.
“At Christmas, to cheer myself up, I booked for my brother and me to go on a cruise around the Caribbean.
“My husband went crazy, saying I should have given the money to him so he could pay off his debts. When I got back from the cruise, he found messages on my phone that he didn’t like.
“I had been messaging some of the men I met on the dating apps, but only because I saw them as friends.
“I tried to explain that to him, but he didn’t understand, and we broke up two weeks ago. He’s still messaging me, but I’m determined not to go back.
“I realise that I was a fool to fall for him. I feel that he’s used me to start a new life in the UK, and he was probably never in love with me in the first place.
“My advice to anyone thinking of going on a dating site is, be very careful.”
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