Perla Navia has been candid about her estranged relationship with her older son, Rafael on The Real Housewives of Cheshire. But this week, the yoga instructor shared an update on her Instagram page, where she revealed that she finally reunited with her son.
"My Son Rafael #reunited ❤️💏 #everythingispossible Love from Colombia 🇨🇴😘," she captioned a photo of herself hugging her son, who graduated from school.
Perla spent her time in a care home in Colombia before the family fled to Spain as refugees. Then a family tragedy left her homeless at 11. By 15 she was a teenage mother. But according to the Daily Star, the yoga instructor turned her life around and went on to meet the man of her dreams – self-made millionaire Jonathan Barton.
“I was born in Colombia and my parents fled the country because of the conflict when I was seven years old. Prior to that I’d been put in a care home with my siblings and when I was nine they finally had enough money to bring us over to Spain,” she told the publication.
“We were poor, no-one had anything in Colombia because of the dictatorship.”
Perla admitted that she doesn't speak to her parents after a devastating family tragedy which she refuses to discuss.
“I had four siblings growing up and I have only three now because one passed away in very tragic circumstances,” she explained at that time. “When I moved to Spain my life really started. Lots of refugees were heading there at that time. We moved together as a family.”
“But at 11 the tragedy which I lost my sibling happened and it blew my family apart. I left home and found my own way, living on the streets homeless,” she continued. “I didn’t have time to stop and think about how awful it was, I was focused on staying alive.”
“I never went back home to my parents, it wasn’t an option, the relationship was over. I am not able to talk about it.”
Navia revealed that as a teenager, she scrubbed floors and toilets to make ends meet, before getting pregnant at the age of 15.
“I fell pregnant by my first love. I don’t want to even remember him now as it broke my heart,” she shared. “I did many jobs to support myself, cooking, cleaning toilets, selling flowers – you name it, I did it. Because I’d come from such a dysfunctional family I always had the dream of having everything for my very own.”
However, marrying her now-husband Jon turned her life around. “I was so lucky to meet my husband in Barcelona when I was 17. I had my eye on him but he definitely didn’t notice me. So I had to graft him – a lot. But it was worth it,” she told the Daily Star. “He’s outspoken, likeable, natural and very funny. He wasn’t privileged either but he was a self-made man. We complimented each other.”
Photo Credit: ITVBe, Instagram
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