By Nick Craven and Will Stewart For Mail Online
Published: 02:11 EDT, 23 September 2022 | Updated: 14:26 EDT, 23 September 2022
This is the stunning Ukrainian amateur model who tempted former Wonga boss Haakon Overli to leave his wife and children after taking her in as a refugee.
These exclusive photos of Mariia Polonchuk, 39, show a very different side to the motoher-of-three who once co-authored a Ukrainian cookbook and has hitherto only been seen in photos at a village fete.
Earlier this month, MailOnline revealed that stunning Mariia began a relationship with 52-year-old multi-millionaire Mr Overli after she fled the war in Ukraine with her sons and moved to the Overlis’ £3m Surrey mansion.
Soon after arriving in the UK, Mariia featured in a photo tweeted by local MP and former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who wrote: 'It was great to meet a Ukrainian being hosted by a local family... nothing more English than the village fete to welcome them.'
But Mariia’s former partner Andrey Sheldunov, father of her three sons, is a photographer back In Kyiv who specialises in portraits and nudes, and Mariia has modelled sensational swimwear shoots for him in the past.
Her beguiling portfolio on social media shows she is a natural in front of the camera, whether frolicking sleek and sexy in the surf, leaping from the water or draped on the beach.
This is the Ukrainian amateur model Mariia Polonchuk - a mother of three - who tempted ex Wonga boss Haakon Overli to leave his wife and children after taking her in as a refugee
Last month MailOnline revealed that stunning Mariia began a relationship with 52-year-old multi-millionaire Mr Overli after she fled the war in Ukraine with her three children
And in portraiture, her piercing blue eyes mesmerise the viewer, in serious or smiling poses.
Although it is not clear whether she and Andrey married, they were evidently long-term partners, with all her sons taking his surname.
Andrey also co-authored a Ukrainian cookbook with Mariia and the pair were co-directors of a Kyiv-based company called Kontakt Media from 2006 until June of this year.
They appeared to have a comfortable life before the war, with foreign holidays.
Happy families: Former Health Secretary and South West Surrey MP Jeremy Hunt shared this pictured with Mr Overli, his now ex-wife, their children and new girlfriend Mariia Polonchuk
Haakon Overli, 52, (right) is said to have begun a love affair with the Eastern European woman just months after taking her into the family home in Surrey following the Russian invasion
Mariia, Andrey and their family originally lived in Ukraine’s second city Kharkhiv, but moved to Kyiv more recently.
Mr Overli, former boss of disgraced payday loans firm Wonga, is estimated to be worth £5 million and is said to have lobbied the government to help bring refugees to the UK from Ukraine since the invasion.
He reportedly began weeks of lobbying former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former Home Secretary Priti Patel in March to speed up the process of bringing his now girlfriend to Britain.
Ms Polonchuk’s arrival in the UK earlier this year with her boys may have spared her eldest son, now aged 18, from being called up to join the brutal war against the Russian invaders which has claimed thousands of lives.
The family were able to join 52-year-old Norwegian-born Mr Overli, his wife and children at their sprawling Surrey estate.
But only a few months after the Ukrainian family were granted visas, Ms Polonchuk and Mr Overli moved out of the marital home in Surrey, with her children, leaving his wife and his school-aged children behind.
Andrey Sheldunov - the long-term partner of Mariia and father of her three children
Other photographs and postings on social media from Ukraine discovered by MailOnline give a poignant glimpse into the Sheldunov/Polonchuk family’s happy existence there before Putin’s cynical war turned their lives upside down.
Around 2007 and 2010 Andrey took stunning photographic portraits of his partner Mariia, calling her affectionately Manya or Masha on the caption.
And in 2015, the pair collaborated on a book featuring Ukrainian culture, history and cookery.
Translated into German as Das große Buch der Ukrainischen Küche [The big book of Ukrainian cuisine], it received scores of glowing five-star reviews from readers on Amazon.
One said of the 2015 hardback edition: ‘An absolutely authentic, really good cookbook with a very good selection of recipes. The best Ukrainian cookbook I know of.’
Mariia’s former partner Andrey is a photographer back In Kyiv specialising in portraits and nudes and Mariia featured as a model in some of his shoots
Mariia Polonchuk pictured with her long-term partner and father of her three children Andrey Sheldunov
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