HOW BRITISH ‘KIM’
Love Island star Anna vakili’s best pal has told how the Kim Kardashian lookalike saved him from a life of homelessness.
Naman Parvaiz has been close to the fiery beauty for almost a decade and says that without her friendship he would have ended up on the streets.
His relationship with his parents broke down after he told them he was gay when he was still in his teens – and he claims they tried to persuade him to marry a girl in Pakistan.
But Anna came to the rescue and her Middle Eastern immigrant family took him in.
Now Naman, 29, says: “I didn’t even know what friendship was until I met Anna. The Vakili family totally changed my opinion of how people could be. I felt like I’d found a new family. I thought if my family don’t want to know me at least I have my friends around me.
“I wasn’t used to loyalty and now you can see how loyal Anna is in the villa. People don’t understand – she would do anything for her friends.”
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Bar worker Naman first met Anna and her sister Mandi on a night out in a gay club in Kingston, South West London, in 2010.
“I remember seeing these two exotic girls,” he says. “I was like ‘Oh my God I want to be friends with you. You two are glamorous.’ We added each other on Facebook and that was it.”
As they got closer he told Anna how his parents had sent him to Pakistan at 16 to marry a cousin on his father’s side.
Naman’s mother Shagufta Parveen, 48, later said: “I knew Naman was gay, but I thought he should get engaged to a woman because of our religion.”
The teenager was plunged into anxiety and depression and the arranged marriage was called off after his parents split up. But his problems at home rumbled on, and Naman was struggling to be his true self.
“I didn’t even really believe in the whole gay marriage thing. I was gay but I wasn’t comfortable,” he says.
Anna and Mandi , worried about their pal, sat him down for a heart to heart six years ago.
“They said, ‘Look, you should be proud of who you are. You are gay and you’re Muslim, that’s a beautiful thing. You should be able to tell your story to people and stand up for your rights.’
“I thought, ‘ You know what, if they are themselves, I can follow their lead’.
“We come from minority cultures in the UK. That was our common ground.”
When Naman was 23 his relationship with his mother got so low he could no longer bear living with her, but Anna proved to be his rock.
“She really had my back,” he says. “She asked me to come and live with her family for a while.” Her parents welcomed him
Anna had my back. She asked me to live with her family
PAL NAMAN On Offer that changed his life
like a son, he says. He would cook the family curries at their semi in Twickenham and even called her parents uncle and aunty.
“I lived there a few months and it was fantastic,” says Naman. “They told me I needed to sort my life out but that I could stay as long as I needed.
“Anna and Mandi started looking for a job with me. They’re very close to their mum and dad, who are lovely. Mind you it is funny as they are quite strict too.”
Naman reckons he and Anna are so close because they have faced similar issues, especially feeling like an outsider.
Self-styled Iranian princess Anna has suffered abuse for her sexy outfits. Her