SAS hero finds sweet love with Cadbury scion legal eagle
HE TRANSFIXED the world when, alone but armed with a Colt Canada rifle, a Glock 9mm handgun and a combat knife, he confronted and killed jihadist terrorists who’d seized a hotel in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, freeing scores of hostages in 2019.
Now, in a development which sounds as though it’s been lifted from a Hollywood script, the former SAS man known by the pseudonym ‘Christian Craighead’ has found love with a member of the Cadbury’s chocolate dynasty.
Tobi- Jayne Cadbury, 35, comes from a world which could scarcely be more different from Christian’s.
Whereas Craighead, who was born in the North-East, enlisted in the Army aged 16, she is the daughter of retired judge Nigel Cadbury and a descendant of the confectionary giant’s founder, John Cadbury.
They were introduced by friends in London. Tobi- Jayne, who has followed her father into a legal career, says: ‘We are together and we have been for a while. I support him anyway I can.’ As to the future, she tells me: ‘We are extremely happy dating for the time being.’
The surname Christian has assumed is that of a former flame, Shealah Craighead, who, in another Hollywood twist, was chief official White House photographer for President Donald Trump.
Soon after his extraordinary heroism in Nairobi, for which he
received the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross — Britain’s second highest award for bravery — Craighead met Trump. ‘He took the time to thank me personally for saving American lives,’ Craighead recorded on social media alongside a photo of him with the former U.S. President.
The former SAS man, who left the Armed Forces 18 months ago, was off- duty in Nairobi, where he was training members of Kenya’s military, when he received a phone call telling him that Somali terrorists had seized a hotel and taken numerous hostages. He has written an account of the 19 hours which unfolded, One Man In: The Explosive Firsthand Account Of The Lone Special-ops Soldier Who Fought Off A Major Terrorist Attack In Kenya.
Probably not bedtime reading for Tobi- Jayne. She can snuggle up to the author instead.