HOW ENDERS HEATHER'S ONLINE

PAL IN MOROCCO BECAME HUBBY

- BY CHERYL FERGISON

Finding fame playing hapless Heather Trott in EastEnders, Cheryl Fergison’s rollercoaster life is as dramatic as any Albert Square plot.

Now, as she approaches 60, her bombshell autobiography, Behind The Scenes, gives a candid insight into some of her most memorable moments. In part three of our exclusive series of extracts adapted from her book,

Cheryl reveals how she met Moroccan husband Yassine al-Jemoni, 39 - who is 21 years her junior - for the first time after gradually falling in love while they chatted online.

And, in the words of her great pal and EastEnders stalwart, Steve McFadden, who wrote the foreword to her book: "When Cheryl tells a story, people listen. She is engaging and holds court like no one else."

Cheryl says: "Yassine, or Yas as I came to call him, was warm, funny and endlessly curious.

"I was a 45-year-old single mum, divorced and juggling work with caring for my child.

"He was 24 and living in a suburb in Agadir, Morocco. He fixed computers in hotels, spoke Arabic, French and German, and was teaching himself English from tourists, telly, music and now... me.

"I was basically his human Duolingo, and we started typing to each other late into the night."

And so their online friendship unfolded, with him sending her selfies with his family.