My parents are ashamed after Tony left Lorna for me – but their break up was not my fault, says love triangle refugee
A UKRAINIAN refugee at the centre of a bitter love triangle says her parents are ashamed of her for breaking up the relationship of a couple that offered her a home.
Sofiia Karkadym, 22, moved in with Tony Garnett, 29, and his missus Lorna after they offered to sponsor her UK stay.
Ten days later, Lorna, 28, accused the blonde IT worker of setting her sights on her man.
Sofiia packed her bags, but Lorna was left heartbroken after security guard Tony followed her out of the door.
Sofiia, who fled Lviv and crossed to Poland as war with Russia raged, has now told The Sun she has been accused of putting UK families off hosting Ukraine’s refugees and disowned by her own family.
She added: “My parents said they were ashamed and cannot even go outside because of me.
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“They say that because of me nobody in the UK will take in Ukrainians.
“Every UK family will now think ‘I can’t take in a refugee because she will take my husband from me’. It’s more than about me, Tony and Lorna.
“It’s deeper. It’s about everything, about the war, refugees, helping people, everything.
“In my country, it is important for refugees to get the help they need and this has done the opposite.
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“You cannot understand what I feel. It’s your country, you have your family here, you have everything here.
“And now I have people writing to me saying I’m a horrible person, that I did a bad thing for my country.
“Everyone in the UK is thinking the same thing because I take man from the family — but all of this is lies.”
The 22-year-old tod The Sun “I am not a homewrecker. That’s b*****t" as she defended her decision.
She slammed: “I never thought or planned to go into their home and take Tony from Lorna.
“That never crossed my mind. I liked the family. I spent a lot of time with Lorna and I tried to help her. But she was two-faced.
“Her constant suspicions, the tension, it just pushed me and Tony closer together.
“She created this situation by constantly suggesting something was going on when it wasn’t. So this is her fault.”
Sofiia admitted the situation was complicated but insisted: “We know what happened between us.
“As far as I’m concerned they destroyed their relationship long before I arrived.
“Their relationship was at fault. None of this is my work. “It was my decision to leave when I did and Tony decided to come with me.”
Every UK family will now think ‘I can’t take in a refugee because she will take my husband from me’. It’s more than about me, Tony and Lorna.
Sofiia Karkadym
Sofiia told how she has been accused of putting UK families off hosting Ukraine’s refugees and disowned by her own family.
She added: “My parents said they were ashamed and cannot even go outside because of me.
“They say that because of me nobody in the UK will take in Ukrainians.
“Every UK family will now think ‘I can’t take in a refugee because she will take my husband from me’. It’s more than about me, Tony and Lorna.
“It’s deeper. It’s about everything, about the war, refugees, helping people, everything.
“In my country, it is important for refugees to get the help they need and this has done the opposite.
“You cannot understand what I feel. It’s your country, you have your family here, you have everything here.
“And now I have people writing to me saying I’m a horrible person, that I did a bad thing for my country.
“Everyone in the UK is thinking the same thing because I take man from the family — but all of this is lies.”
Sofiia insisted nothing went on between her and Tony until after they left the couple’s home in Bradford, West Yorks.
She said she was respectful towards Lorna but was aware her presence in the property was creating tension and upset.
Graduate Sofiia, originally from Kyiv, also rubbished Lorna’s claim that she wore low-cut tops and put on make up for when Tony arrived home from work each day.
She was working in Lviv when Russia invaded her homeland on February 24.
Fighting back tears, she said: “My life back then was really normal and beautiful.
I never thought or planned to go into their home and take Tony from Lorna.
Sofiia Karkadym
"I went to the gym every day, I worked for an IT company.
“Everything in my life was really, really good. “In the future I dreamed of going somewhere abroad but at that moment my life was nice.
“When the war began everything changed. On the morning it started I rang my mum in Kyiv and asked her where she was. She told me she was in a bunker.
“At that moment my heart was pounding. My work finished because my boss went to fight. I didn’t know what to do.
“I just watched the news with my relatives. It was horrible. Every hour, every day looking at what is happening to your country.
“I lost everything I built for years: My work, friends, family, everybody lost everything. You can’t do anything in Ukraine because of the war. I decided to move abroad because it became impossible to live there. Every hour air-raid sirens were going off.
“You don’t know where to go, downstairs into the basement, any moment anything can happen.”
Sofiia got a lift from her apartment in Lviv to Rava-Ruska on the border with Poland, and crossed over by foot.
From there she travelled to Krakow then to Hamburg in Germany before arriving in Berlin.
But after two months of moving from “pillar to post” she decided to move to the UK after the government offered refugees six month placements with host families.
She posted her application for a UK sponsor on the Opora Homes for Ukraine site in April and was inundated with offers of help.
Tony logged onto the site after he and Lorna agreed to help, and came across Sofiia’s details first.
After a long delay Sofiia was granted a visa and flew to Manchester on May 4 where she was picked up by Tony and driven across the M62 to Bradford.
She wept: “When I landed in the UK and got off the plane I was so so happy, I cannot even explain my emotions at that moment.
“I was happy because I felt like I could finally start my new life without being worried or scared.
“It was really nice just to see a friendly face and to communicate with him.
Every day I was coming home from work and thinking ‘F***ing hell, what now?
Tony Garnett
“But from the first day I felt something not nice from Lorna. I felt it inside but I never showed that I felt it.
“I tried to be nice but she was complaining every day, getting more and more jealous of the time Tony and I were spending together
“Each night she was asking Tony ‘Why are you staying downstairs with her’.
“Why not? Should I stay in my room alone after everything that has happened? I wanted to communicate with somebody, I wanted to be with people.
“It was very important for me. For me it was hard to be alone. But every day she was asking Tony ‘Why, why, why, why, why?’” It finally came to a head ten days later and Sofiia decided to pack her bags, followed by Tony.
Tony, who works in an NHS drop-in centre, said: “Every day I was coming home from work and thinking ‘F***ing hell, what now?’
“Don’t get me wrong, we were attracted to each other but we knew the boundaries.
“Nothing developed until after, when Sofiia left the house.
“I know it sounds s*** what has gone on but you deal with the cards you’ve been dealt.
“To me the cards I got…it was a no brainer. I’d rather be on my arse now and happy. I know I’ve done the right thing.”
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Almost 54,000 refugees from Ukraine have arrived in the UK under Government schemes.
Refugees Minister Lord Harrington said: “We are doing all we can to support arrivals.”
Rival did not realise my grasp of English
SOFIIA Karkadym told how she understood arguments between Tony Garnett and his missus Lorna — because her English is better than her rival realised.
The blonde Ukrainian, 22, claimed Lorna slated her over the phone and behind her back as tensions bubbled.
Sofiia, like many in her homeland, learned English during her studies.
She added of Lorna: “She would say one thing to Tony about me — which I understood perfectly — then be perfectly nice to me.
“She acted like I didn’t speak any English.
“But I understood every word she was saying.
“I didn’t say anything when I first arrived — but I knew as soon as I did that Lorna had a problem with me.
“She didn’t hide it at all well and was constantly on at Tony about me and how close we were becoming.”
The Sun exclusively revealed the love triangle on Saturday, with Tony revealing he had fallen in love with Sofiia.
His scorned ex Lorna then spoke exclusively to The Sun on Sunday to give her side of the story, explaining that she was heartbroken by Tony’s betrayal.
Our exclusive also went viral in Sofiia’s homeland amid fears her love affair with Tony would put UK families off from hosting Ukrainian refugees.
