Abbey stars’ daughter marries a man within half an hour of meeting him
WOMAN who converted to Islam and moved to Libya married a man she had met online just 30 minutes after seeing him face to face.
Joanna Golden, daughter of famous Abbey actors Máire Ní Dhomhnaill and Geoffrey Golden, was signed up to the dating site SingleMuslim.com by her daughter after her divorce.
Joanna, 56, an Irish Muslim living in Libya, is originally from Rathfarnham in Dublin. Her eldest son Sam fought in the uprising against Gaddafi.
She moved to Libya with her first husband in 2012 and although the marriage didn’t last, she stayed on to run an English school.
She tells her extraordinary story on a new TV series, Missing You, which begins this week on RTÉ One.
‘Less than a week after my divorce, Marian, my daughter, signed me up to that website. The next day, a guy called Fazel Patel answered the ad.’
The pair eventually met two years ago in Gloucester, England, where he lives, and they married immediately.
Upon meeting, the couple declared their love for each other and were married 30 minutes later.
Their story features in a new sixpart series exploring relationships through the confines of video calls. Missing You begins on RTÉ One on Wednesday at 8.30pm.