'I was treated like a slave by family - I'm a real-life Cinderella'

Sarah Jemirifo tells how she overcame horrifying neglect and poverty to become a successful fashion entrepreneur

- LESLEY JONES

Fashion brand owner Sarah Jemirifo, 54, from Colchester, Essex, designs show-stopping gowns, but her early life was a world away from the glamorous career she now enjoys. Her true rags to riches story – involving abandonment, bigamy and child cruelty – is an inspiration to anyone who wants to transform their fortunes

Life in my early years was uneventful. Dad was from Nigeria and had met my white English mum – a secretary –at work. He was a successful property developer and we had a comfortable, affluent home life near London.

When I was about five, the decision was made that we were to move back to a town called Ibadan in Dad’s home country. I was sent to a private nursery and we lived in a middle class area in a lovely house. But that’s when life started to fall apart.

Dad was wealthy and successful. Good-looking and with the gift of the gab, he had an eye for the ladies too. One day, Mum caught him in a compromising situation with the maid. My siblings and I didn’t understand what was going on, of course – only that suddenly our mum wasn’t around.

We were never given an explanation, but when I later found a suitcase full of her clothes, photos and documents, I had a sudden realisation that Mum wasn’t coming back. The maid soon moved into our home and, over the years, two more “wives” followed. By then, Dad had a total of 21 kids. He was obsessed with women and they took him for everything they could get.

I wasn’t looked after or included in the family lives of the others. If I wanted to eat, I’d wipe slime and mould from a pile of leftovers kept for weeks in the kitchen.