My worst Christmas ever forced me to move 4,400 miles in hunt for new life to escape cheating ex

A RELATIONSHIP coach has told how surviving a Christmas from hell inspired her to start a new life.

Katarina Polonska was happily engaged three years ago and had booked to fly home from Canada to the UK for the festive period.

But her whole world fell apart in the blink of an eye when she found out her fiancé cheated, she was unable to travel and then hit with a £40k bill when her home was flooded. 

She said: “My worst Christmas ever was the Christmas after I called off my engagement.

“I was living in Canada and I found out he’d been cheating on me so my world fully fell apart.

“I was in a dark place because it was Covid, I couldn’t get home to the UK and had to deal with financial stuff.

“He even tried to sue me for custody of our cat and his family cut me out so l was very isolated.

“Slowly I started to build my life again doing a lot of therapy and my plan was to go home for Christmas and see my family as I needed to be in their arms and it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through.

“A week before I was meant to fly I got Covid and all my friends had already left to go abroad. 

“Christmas Eve came and I just got plastered on my own. I felt awful. I tried to go on a Bumble date that evening and it was catastrophic.

“Christmas Day it was cold and it was snowing, I was home alone watching the Kings College Choir ceremony and crying in my pyjamas drinking wine.”

Katarina added: “I was at breaking point. Then I went to bed and woke up in the morning at 2am to my cat meowing and I stepped out into my kitchen and there was a waterfall coming from my sink.

“It was a waterfall of turkey water from the neighbour upstairs. Something had blocked and water was going all over my hardwood floor.

“I started paying for hotels so I had to put my cat into a backpack and was running around Vancouver trying to find a room.

“A friend bailed me out. January came and was a better month and then February hit me with a £40k bill for flooding.

“Then the Ukraine war hit and my dad lived in Ukraine.

“I thought it was a sign I needed to leave Canada. I sold my home fully furnished and didn’t make a profit. I left and came back to the UK.”

Despite fearing she’d made a massive mistake, Katarina’s decision ended up being the best move she’d ever made.

She now views her worst Christmas ever as a blessing in disguise and couldn’t be happier with her life.

She explained: “I spent a month really panicking thinking I made a big mistake. 

“That’s when I knew I had to sort it out. It had been half a year of catastrophic blows. I went into deep therapy and started reevaluating my life.

“I quit a corporate job in London to go on a sabbatical to Spain and just to take a rest.  The Ukraine war made me think there was more to life than grinding away and making money.

“A week after making that decision I met my now husband.

“We met at a music festival and he joined me on my sabbatical and six months later we got engaged and 11 months later we were married.

“I’m now a relationship coach and living in Spain.”