Daily Mail, Saturday, August 17, 2019 Page 35expert and had done voiceovers for
Netflix, this week Kristyna would
say only that after university she
had worked in human resources ‘for
a number of years for a number of
different companies’.
She is more forthcoming on the
subject of the early months of her
romance with Michael, a divorcee,
the beginnings of which, at least, it
seems both parties are agreed upon.
The two met via the Muddy Matches
dating site around the start of 2018,
and corresponded online and by
telephone for about a year.
‘We really connected,’ says
Kristyna. ‘We both loved the
countryside and just wanted a
simple life together.’
In Michael’s version of events,
Kristyna had told him that she was
a member of a British aristocratic
family and that if she came to the
UK they could live at the family
farm in Scotland. In fact, there
seems to be no ‘family farm’ in
Scotland — or not one belonging to
Kristyna anyway — and in one of
his more eyebrow-raising
allegations, Michael says he
believes that Kristyna used
computer software to fabricate a
conversation with an alleged Scot-
tish cousin called John from that‘aristocratic’ side of the family.
Kristyna denies all of this
vehemently. ‘I was very honest with
him about my family background,
there were no lies and no secrets,’
she insists. ‘I have told him things
I have never told anyone else.
‘He spoke to my sister many
times on the phone, and to one of
my cousins, he was free to talk to
my mum and stepdad. There is
land owned by the family in Scot-
land but I never promised anything
to Michael about living there.’N
oNeTHeleSS, Kristyna
says the relationship
nearly went awry even
before they met for the
first time after she heard stories
about Michael’s time in the Army.
(With regard to this, Michael tells
the Daily Mail he’s done nothing
wrong and doesn’t know what she’s
talking about.)
‘I said I wasn’t sure I could trust
him, but even his mother got in
touch asking me to give him
another chance. We agreed that if
this was to work we needed
complete trust. We agreed to
exchange passwords for socialmedia accounts and general
accounts — which is the reason he
later met his downfall,’ she says.
Finally, in December last year
Kristyna came to the UK to meet
Michael. Two days after she arrived,
he proposed with a £5,000
engagement ring in a waterfront
pub in Conwy in North Wales.
‘I met his family on Christmas eve
and they were welcoming enough.
Then on Christmas Day Michael
had to work so I travelled to lon-
don with him,’ she recalls. ‘I then
spent Christmas Day on my own in
a hotel room, but I didn’t mind as I
knew he didn’t get much time off.’
over the next six weeks, she
travelled around the country with
him as he worked, before returning
to Australia. Michael arrived two
weeks later.
The pair married at the Melbourne
Welsh Church with two builders as
witnesses — a deliberate decision,
insists Kristyna. ‘I just wanted it to
be our day. Michael was here on his
own so it felt wrong for my family
to be there.’
The couple booked into a nearby
hotel, but their nuptial happiness
was short-lived: according to
Michael, he called time on the
marriage even before he returnedto the UK a week later due to work
commitments. He said he realised
his wife was ‘controlling’ and that
he had made a mistake.
Following his departure, his new
bride had immediately applied for
a UK spouse visa, which is when
Michael says that he became aware
of inconsistencies in her story and
he found out she was a secretary
for a taxi firm.
Then, after asking questions
about her background, he says
Kristyna ‘trolled’ his extended
family and sent hostile messages
warning them not to damage her
chances of getting to the UK.
Kristyna has a different
recollection. She was, she says, left
heartbroken by her discovery,
through accessing his mobile
phone records, that her husband of
less than a few weeks had already
cheated on her.
‘He had become distant very
quickly, and as we had agreed to be
open I looked at his phone records
and realised he had been contacting
other women,’ she says.
Breaking down in tears at the
recollection, she claims Michael
begged for forgiveness before
becoming hostile.
‘It was a roller coaster — he
begged for forgiveness, then gotangry, then wanted forgiveness
again. I have a copy of a text
message in which he admitted his
mistakes. even his mum asked me
to give him another chance.
‘But by mid-May it became clear
the situation was untenable and I
filed for divorce,’ she says. ‘It left
me deeply upset and the situation
has been made worse by Michael’s
vile accusations.’
She refutes any notion that she
married for a visa.
‘It’s laughable,’ she insists. ‘My
documentation shows I applied for
a visa under my current name
Kristyna Halyburton — the name
on my passport — and I paid for
everything. With Brexit and the
threat of terrorism and other issues
the thought of an Australian using
a Brit for a visa is ridiculous — it
would be the other way around.’
None of this, of course, addresses
the mystery of Isla Drummond Hay
— an island that in an interview
Kristyna said had been purchased
by her Great-Uncle Maurice — and
her grand ‘philanthropic’ offer to
budding conservationists.
In fact, the current earl of Perth
has confirmed the family does not
own the island, while both theto the UK a week later due to work angry,thenwantedforgivenessor a liar?
He says: She’s a
fantasist who
gulled me into
marriage to get a
UK passport. Oh,
and this bungalow
was her home.
So who do YOU
believe?
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Pictures: ROGER MAYNARD/JAMES GLOSSOP/DAILY POST WALESMystery: Kristyna
and Michael. Left
Stobhall Castle, and
Kristyna’s rented
bungalow in Australiav1