Even for an EastEnders storyline, this romance would seem a bit far-fetched.
Divorced actress Cheryl Fergison - who plays Heather Trott in the long-running BBC soap opera - has fallen for a Moroccan toyboy lover almost two decades her junior.
A friend of Miss Fergison’s said last night: ‘Cheryl is very, very happy.’
By coincidence, Miss Fergison’s EastEnders character has just had an affair with a teenage toyboy.
Far-fetched? Actress Cheryl Fergison is romancing Yassim al-Jemoni, a Moroccan shop assistant, after meeting him online
Miss Fergison split from her husband Jamshed Saddiqi two years ago
Miss Fergison, 44, first came into contact with Yassim al-Jemoni earlier this year when she was introduced by ‘a friend of a friend’ on a social networking website.
They spent hours messaging each other before beginning to talk regularly via internet phone service Skype.
Mr al-Jemoni, 25, lives with his elderly parents in Agadir, a city in the south-west of Morocco. As their friendship grew, Miss Fergison went to visit Mr al-Jemoni, who is not a goatherd as has been claimed but works as a shop assistant in his family business.
Despite the 19-year age gap, the pair fell for each other and she visited him again at the end of last month.
But the pair are not engaged and he is not planning to move to the UK to live with Miss Fergison and her 11-year-old son in Sidcup, Kent.
A close friend revealed: ‘Cheryl and Yassim are very, very happy but it’s still early days and they are not engaged yet.’
Miss Fergison has been the subject of ‘good-natured banter’ from cast mates and crew members at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, where EastEnders is filmed. It is a remarkable turnaround for Miss Fergison.
The actress - who last year revealed that she was diabetic and clinically obese - was distraught when she split from her husband Jamshed Saddiqi two years ago.
