'I swapped Rwanda for Rochdale to marry ex-Labour and now we're adopting'
Simon Danczuk’s new wife says she has swapped Rwanda for Rochdale – and is loving life in the UK.
Beauty therapist Claudine, 28, also revealed that she and the former Labour MP, 56, plan to adopt a baby from her East African homeland. The pair married in a lavish summer bash in Rwanda and are having a UK ceremony at the end of the month.
Simon was one of Labour’s most outspoken MPs, representing Rochdale from 2010 to 2017. His second wife Karen, 39, also shot to fame as the selfie queen for her revealing snaps. Claudine, known as Coco, was initially denied a visitors visa because officials didn’t believe they were in a relationship.
The couple wed in Rwanda (Jonathan Buckmaster)But she finally got here on August 27 and now splits her time between his homes in Pimlico, central London, and Rochdale, Lancs, where he was MP. “I have been here for one month. It feels so exciting,” she says. “Rochdale and London are quite different but I like both. Rochdale is a beautiful town, the weather is a bit colder.
“I’m really enjoying being here with my husband. It was hard being apart. I was in Rwanda and he was here so we had to video-call every day.” Simon already has four children but Coco – his third wife – says they want to start a family, including adopting a child from Rwanda.
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“We have spoken about it and said, God willing, we will have two children and then adopt one,” she says. “I want to adopt a very young baby from Rwanda because it is my country and people need support.
“I will be happy to get them into school and give them a better life. I don’t mind if they are boys or girls. Children are children, and I love kids.” Coco is unconcerned by the age gap of nearly 30 years.
She said: “Age is just a number. It doesn’t matter at all when you’re looking for a successful marriage, as long as the man is the man you really want to spend the rest of your life with. Simon is the right man for me. He fits all the criteria I was looking for, so the age gap doesn’t matter.”
Simon and his ex-wife Karen (Manchester Evening News)His three-year marriage to Karen broke down in 2015 and he was suspended by Labour the same year over sex texts he sent to a 17-year-old. In 2016 it was reported Simon had sex with a 22-year-old woman on his constituency office desk after meeting just days earlier on Twitter.
It was claimed he also had a relationship with mum-of-one Claire Hamilton, 32, after they shared a kiss at a Labour conference bash in Brighton. He was later engaged to Charlene Meade, 19 years his junior. Simon met Coco in a restaurant in the Rwandan capital Kigali while on a business trip in March last year.
They tied the knot there in July in front of 300 guests in a traditional ceremony with dancers and 10
bridesmaids. Hours after Coco landed at Heathrow last month, he took her to the Notting Hill Carnival, which she described as “like a giant welcoming party”.
She has also been impressed by London’s Oxford Street, Fortnum & Mason, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club,
and the London Stadium. And Coco has been treated to the attractions of Rochdale, including the Pioneers Museum, breakfast at San Remo café, and fish and chips.
Coco, who owns a salon in Kigali, is studying a beauty course in London and will model at London’s African Fashion Week at the end of this month. She said: “I want to start my own mobile salon here and do modelling.” Coco added: “My parents are very supportive. My mum used to say even when we were young, ‘If you say a man is the right man for me, I will support you’. They were so excited when they met Simon. It was the right time for me to get married.”
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