Chat Specials - August 2022

68 Pages·2022·72.8 MB·English

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ummer’s finally here, and
we’re ready to celebrate!
Bring the holiday to you
with our bold and bright
home buys (pg24), and follow
our tips to throw a garden party
to remember (pg10).

This month, we meet Krystal,
who was humiliated when she
realised she tipped the scales at
a whopping 21st, thanks to her
love of peanut butter sarnies
(pg32) — but after a wedding
dress humiliation, she slimmed
down to a slinky size 12.

Now she’s the life and soul of
the party.

And when Lucy was in a
terrible accident, doctors told
her she’d never walk again
(pg36) — but her super dog
Rudy helped nurse her back to
health, and now she’s back hiking
up hills!

As well as these and plenty

more feel-good real life, look out rz Wes J SIGHT S\
for our behind-the-scenes a ‘ (| OF )y :
exclusive on a day in the life of a ¢ (ZACHARY -//f
zookeeper (pg47). ; ‘* __ {|] [(CLOUDESLEY fh |
Plus, read on to find out how to -_ aan i ia,
get fit and catch some rays at the > J ae sa |
same time with some top outdoor ' STRAWBERRY OM
exercise ideas (pg50) and get B. DAIQUIRI

@ Pvovearconouic ix

yourself beach-ready with our
pick of the most stylish bags to
hold everything from sunglasses
to bikinis (pg34)

Don’t forget to pick up your
Chat September special, too, on
sale 11 August.

Enjoy!

Gail x

On which page in this
month’s Chat can you
find these flowers?

Your answer:

Answer on page 60

Chat 3
Holiday smiles

It’s the first time me and my husband have
been away since having our twins. A long
and well deserved break, so lots of smiles
all round. Stacey, Bristol.

|
Although he doesn’t look it, Sam is

chuffed to be chilling out — even if he
stole my dressing gown!

My daughter sent me this picture of
her on her travels. I’m so happy she is

a Ba £283 living her best life and being treated
right. I’m very jealous of all the
sightseeing.
Pirate pose

This lorikeet had a lucky
landing on my boyfriend at
Longleat — this is my favourite
photo ever! Ava, Bristol

My boys have always had a close
bond and looking through old
family photos makes me feel
emotional. They still get on this
well despite it being almost 10

Are you kidding me?!
Here lam having a big cuddle
with a baby goat at Pennywell
Farm. It was making a lot of noise,
but didn’t want me to put it down!
Kimberley, Wiltshire

After hours of trying our best,

we managed to catch this huge
crab in Weymouth. It did look a
little angry!

I I’ve never seen so many cute
Follow me! piglets. My daughter, Coral,
wanted to take them all home
for a tea party. She was
devastated when | said that we

Cora, Yorkshire

THAT’S SO BRI

couldn’t.
L GRABBING A WINTER COAT FOR HALF THE
PRICE IN THE SUMMER SALE!

THE RUSH OF BUYING SCHOOL UNIFORM

BEFORE THE SUMMER HOLIDAYS ARE OVER.

GETTING THE HOLIDAY BLUES AS SOON AS

THE PLANE LANDS IN THE UK.
_fii ee

Stock Images: Getty
When! meta chip
shop worker, | had
noideahow
dangerous he
really was...

Joanne Goffey, 24, from
Liverpool

eeling my phone buzz in my
pocket after school, I opened
up anew message and
instantly smiled.
It was from a lad called
Lee Brown.

I’d been chatting to him for a few
days, after a friend had shared my
pin on the Blackberry BBM
messaging app.

I’d only recently turned 16, and
I’d just had my heart broken for the
first time.

Lee was five years older than me,
and I was really flattered he’d taken
an interest.

It made me feel so grown up.

Lee worked in the local chicken
shop around the corner from me,
owned by his uncle.

Do you fancy meeting up? Lee’s

Words by Lucy Bryant and Hannah Crocker. Photos: SWNS

I was so young

message popped up.

I'd love to, \replied. But I'll
bring a friend along with me.

Iwill, too, he said.

I had a good feeling about Lee,
but I still knew it wasn’t a good idea
to meet alone for the first time.

My friend Meg agreed to come,
and we all met up near the local
park after school one evening, in
October 2013.

The four of us walked around for
two hours, chatting about anything
and everything.

Lee told me he was from
Kurdistan. He’d claimed asylum in
the UK, following his
aunt and uncle, who

any secrets between us.

‘He is quite a bit older than you,’
she said, and I could tell she was a
bit worried.

But things between Lee and I
were new and innocent, and I
assured her there was nothing to be
concerned about.

My new romance felt so exciting.

Lee was so kind, always treating
me to free chicken and chips, or
cheeky bigger portions, and being
with him made me feel so much
more mature than my 16 years.

‘Can I stay at Lee’s tonight?’ I
asked Mum one day.

‘I’m not happy about
that,’ she said, and I felt

cece Vly Ce
? was SO emDalrasse
Lee said, as we said our be my to tell Lee that Mum had
goodbyes. ‘Do you said no.

want to come over to
my auntie’s for dinner
next week? She’s a
good cook.’
‘I'd love to,’ I smiled.
I’d never tried Kurdish
cuisine before, and I was excited —I
loved food, and it sounded tasty.
The next week came around fast,
and after spending a lovely evening
with Lee’s aunt and uncle, along
with some truly delicious food, he
turned to me.
“Will you be my girlfriend?’ he
asked me, and I was surprsied.

No one had
ever asked me
that to my face.

I felt so
special —a
21-year-old

bloke wanting to
be with me — and
I jumped at the
chance, saying
yes straight away.
Back at home,
Icouldn’t wait to
tell my mum Kim,
now 48, how my
date had gone.
We were so
close, we were
Zs more like best
mates than mother
: and daughter, and
* there were never

girlfriend?’

I was worried he’d
think I wasn’t mature
enough for him.

But after a few days of
pushing Mum, she finally agreed to
let me go.

It was only a few months into our
relationship that I found out Lee’s
real name was Hewa Ali, but when
he told me he’d always just gone by
Lee, I didn’t think much of it.

Things between us moved fast.

I stopped bothering with school
work, and on Lee’s days off I’d
bunk off from sixth form to spend
time with him, binge drinking all
day long.

I’d only ever had sex once
before I met him, and I was
incredibly inexperienced.

When we started sleeping
together, I never really enjoyed it
and I was always left with bite
marks and bruises.

I thought it was normal.

But when Mum saw them she
was angry.

‘This isn’t right,’ she said.

She even messaged Lee,
threatening to call the police, and
my brothers went to the takeaway
to warn him off.

I was mortified.

I was in love with Lee, and
despite what they said, my blinkers
were firmly on.

Lee stopped coming to my

family home, and
when he did, he
couldn’t look
Mum in the eye.

He ended up
rushing us back
out the door as
soon as we
arrived there.

A lot of things
Lee did made me
feel unsure, but I
shrugged them
off, thinking it
was the norm.

Sometimes, I
caught him
chatting to other
girls online, and
the flirty texts
upset me.

But when I
called him out on
it, Lee would
start bawling his
eyes out, telling
me about all the
awful things that
had happened to
him back in his
home country.

I quickly
found out a lot of
his tall tales were
lies — he told me
his father and
brothers had
been shot dead in front of him, but
then I spoke to them on a video call.

It didn’t make sense.

But no matter what he did to me
—a-slap across the face, a bite to the
vagina, being pressured into anal
sex — somehow | always ended up
consoling him.

The first time he convinced me to
reluctantly agree to anal sex, I
ended up at local walk-in centre,
and I took Meg along with me for
moral support.

When the nurse saw a bite mark
on my cheek she asked Meg to
leave the room.

As she examined me, she asked
about the marks.

“You’re very bruised and torn,’
she said gently, and I felt ashamed.
‘If you’d like to speak to me or the
police about what happened to you,
we’re here to help.’

‘No, it’s fine,’ I said.

As I left the appointment, I felt
deflated and confused.

Is this relationship right? |
thought for the first time.

Time had flown, and all ofa
sudden, I’d been with Lee for
three-and-a-half years.

In that time, I’d become a shell of
the bubbly, outgoing girl I once
was, and I’d slowly lost contact
with my friends.

I was even becoming isolated
from my family.

I moved in with Lee in December
2014, but in October 2016 we
moved to another flat, this time
further away from Mum.

I felt so isolated and alone.

But I still stayed with him.

I was dependent on Lee, and I

felt like I needed him.

Every time an issue arose it was
swept under the carpet.

Ijust put up with it, assuming
that’s what most
relationships were like.

Other times though,
he was that sweet, caring
man who Id first spoken
to on BBM.

We spent Christmas
Day 2016 together, and
Lee cooked up a
traditional Kurdish meal
for the two of us.

We both got dressed up for
the occasion and decided to go to
the bar across the street for a drink
or two after dinner.

Thad the best night I’d had in a
long time — Lee let me be for the
evening, while I twirled around,

He pulled
down my
knickers

Horrific

dancing my legs off.

But by 12am it was time for bed,
and after asking Lee for the keys I
headed back across the road and
chucked on my dressing gown.

Sat on the floor in front of the bay
window, I waited for Lee to come
home, but I must have fallen asleep.

I woke to the sound of the front
door opening, and I panicked.

I knew Lee would want to have
sex, and I just wasn’t up for it.

I pretended to be asleep, hoping
it would put him off.

But he lifted my legs, pulled
down my knickers and started
performing oral sex on me.

I froze, and decided not to react,
still pretending to be
asleep in the hope he’d
leave me alone.

‘Fine, sleep here,’ he
spat at me after a couple
of minutes.

Pretending to wake up,
I told him I was sorry.

‘I’m just hungry,’ I
said, hoping he’d leave
me alone.

He heated me up some leftovers,
and went to bed in a strop.

Thoped when I crawled in next to
him, he’d be asleep.

But he wasn’t, and he was
waiting for me.

He tried to initiate sex, and I

reluctantly consented, just to shut
him up.

I hoped him being drunk would
mean it would be over with quickly.

But he wasn’t happy with
‘normal’ rough sex, and he wanted
me to do anal.

‘Come on, babe, do you want
your arse to be like Beyoncé?’ he
leered at me. ‘Let me try your arse.’

I said no over and over again, at
least 20 times.

But the next thing I knew, he’d
spit on his hand, wiped it on my
bum and then I felt a sharp ripping
feeling that made me jolt in pain.

I realised Lee was raping me.

The whole thing felt like a blur.

I have no idea how long it lasted.
When he was finished, I got up
and went to the bathroom, in agony.

‘Did you really just do that to
me? I said, still in complete shock
and disbelief.

‘Yeah,’ he smirked.

He was laughing.

He even seemed proud of himself
after the state he’d left me in. .

It was sickening and I hated him
for what he’d done to me.

Chat 7
Continued from
previous page

ver the next few days, dark
thoughts sank in.
There were times I
wanted to end my own life.
I couldn’t put my finger
on why I felt that way, though, as I
couldn’t admit to myself that I’d
been raped.
The days passed in a blur, and on
2 January 2017 I went to see my GP.
‘Has anything happened to cause
these thoughts?’ she asked gently.
I was honest and it all came
> tumbling out.

The doctor was full of advice and
support, and gave me a phone
number for an organisation that
helps women affected by domestic
abuse or sexual violence, called
Safe Place.

But I was told there wasn’t much
they could do.

I hadn’t told the police, as I didn’t
want to get Lee into trouble.

I just wanted to leave him, but I
didn’t know how.

I felt so trapped and alone.

A few weeks later, Lee and I went
out shopping for the day, and we’d
planned to go back to the same bar

Words by Lucy Bryant and Hannah Crocker. Photos: SWNS and Gett

Always trust your gut

over the road from the
flat again that evening.
But back at home, Lee
blocked the door and
ushered me into the
bedroom for sex.
My whole body
shuddered when he
touched me.
‘No,’ I said.
He just slammed the
door in my face.
That evening, the bar
was empty except one
man, who tried to make
polite conversation with
the pair of us.
I went to the toilet,
and when I came back I
realised there was a
ladder in my tights.
The lad at the bar
made a joke, and Lee
was furious.
He started giving me
attitude, and I suddenly
felt a rush of adrenaline.
“Do you know what?’
I said to him, feeling
brave. ‘We’re done.’
Storming from the
bar, I went home and locked the
door behind me, so Lee couldn’t get
in, and I rang my sister as I packed
an overnight bag.
Ialso called the police and told
them everything.
[heard sirens wailing within
minutes, just as Lee arrived at the
front door.
His aggression turned to
charm when he saw the
blue flashing lights, but
his act didn’t wash
with the police, and
they arrested him on
the spot.

The police took
my statement
before driving me

to Mum’s —
accompanied
with just three
bin bags filled
with all my
worldly goods.
The council
placed me ina
women’s refuge,
where I lived for
nearly two months, and
in March 2017 I was

Horrific True-life

given a flat to call my own.

I started again from scratch.

Mum also moved into a new flat
at the same time, and I met her
downstairs neighbour Marshall a
month later.

He was amazing — by
May we were dating.

Lee, or Hewa Ali,
had taken four years of
my life, and a court
case would take a
further two — but
Marshall supported me
through everything.

Because we were ina
relationship when the rape
occurred, I was worried it might be
difficult to see Hewa get convicted.

But my visits to the GP and
walk-in centres helped to prove
what he was capable of and the
terrible pain he had inflicted on me
over the years.

Hewa Ali was eventually jailed
for 10 years after being convicted of
rape following a re-trial at Liverpool
Crown Court, which ended in May
2018 — after a court case in 2017
ended in a hung jury.

He has now served four years but
was released and deported in May

If something
doesn’t feel
right, itisn’t

AFE PLACE

this year.

While I’m grateful I got justice, I
feel disheartened that he’s only
served four years.

He has a cushty home life to
return to in Kurdistan, while I still
live with the
repercussions of what he
did to me.

But I love my life now
— Marshall and I are
engaged, we have a
beautiful two-year-old
son, Roman, and another
baby boy on the way.

I still have ups and downs, and
what I went through will always stay
with me.

But I’m lucky to have Marshall
and our beautiful family.

With them, I'll continue my
journey of recovery.

When I met Hewa, I was a
vulnerable 16-year-old — he
groomed me with chicken and chips
and wormed his way into my life.

If anyone reading this recognises
any of the red flags, please don’t
ignore them.

If something doesn’t feel right, it
probably isn’t.

Always trust your gut.
What links British Oscar-winning actress and writer Emma Thompson with
Prince Harry? To find out, solve the crossword then read down the letters in
the shaded squares to find the answer.
1 2 3 4

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13 Feeding times (5)

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past even

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that was originally a dugout
attendance (6)
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ip’s path when circling a part of a target (5)

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thouse, usually wooden

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washing cloth (7)

garden flower (7)

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blown snow (5)

speech (7)

acanyon (4)

66 Section of a book (7)

67 Bill submitted for services rendered (7)
68 Chortle (5
69 Welsh national vegetable (4)
70 Aussie bounder (8)

71 Hang, hold up (7)

DOWN
1Sailor’s slung bed (7)
2 Leisure hours (5, 4)
3 Completely occupied with, at the expense of
anything else (8)
AGape tiredly (4)

lity
11 Glass vessel used in chemistry lab (4,4)
ence proving attendance elsewhere

19 Steps for climbing over a fence (5)
22 Result of mixing red with yellow (6)
24 Surpassed, passed on the road (9)

26 Quickly taken, informal photo (8

29 Improved with additions (8)

31 Payments to authors from continuing sales (9)

pital of Scotland (9
in possession of (6)
41 Sharp tasting or resentful (6)

45 List of contents in alphabetical order (5)
49 Risky but exciting undertaking (9)

50 Straight up and down (8)
51 Garden bird with black and brown spotted

33 Holidaymaking sightseers (8)
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52--- tendon, back of the 5 Down, named after
hero (8)

56 Set on fire deliberately (7)
57 Natural roofing material (5)
59 Run after (5)
61 High-temperature disease (5)
63 Operatic show stopper (4)
64 Ballpoint pen (4)

65 Untidy sight (4)

Your answer
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LAN

ho doesn’t Love an al fresco dinner

party? The weather’s warming up — so
it’s time to dust off those deck chairs and get
your garden ready for a get-together!

Jessica Hanley, linen expert and founder

of Piglet in Bed, shares her top tips to create
the perfect tablescape for outdoor dining
this summer to impress your guests...

on’t be afraid to use your nice
glassware outside!

Using wine glasses (no matter what
you’re drinking) will help your
tablescape to Look elegant and refined,
plus they’re a joy to drink out of.

As an attentive host, you should also
lay out some smalltumblers and a
carafe of water, so guests can help
themselves to a drink when they’re
thirsty (this will also save you running
to the kitchen).

SAMAK MAMM USE DECORATIVE CROCKERY

must follow suit with a perfect playlist to elevate the mood.

Bring a portable speaker outside, or simply plug one in
close to the window in the
nearest room to your outdoor
dining area ahead of your
guests’ arrival.

An incredible playlist really
sets the tone for the evening
and can help conversation to
flow easily.

Music makes a huge
difference to the atmosphere,
no matter whether you’re
hosting a brunch, lunch or
sophisticated dinner, and that
extra bit of effort you put into
getting the music right for your
guests will go a long way!

hoosing cockery with bright colours or
patterns can really bring your
tablescape to life.

Use the colours of your crockery to
inspire the whole colour scheme and
theme across your table.

Lime green, yellow, oranges and

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pinks are the colours set to trend this
summer season, so if you’re in the
market for some new plates or bowls,
keep these shades in mind.
Get creative and don’t be afraid to mix and
match contrasting shades!
It’s also a good idea to invest in some food covers
before your outdoor dining session to protect your food from bugs and
keep it fresh. You can get some chic food covers made of bamboo and
mesh that won’t distract from the beauty of your tablescape.