This is the gorgeous Ukrainian amateur model who seduced former Wonga boss Haakon Overli to leave his wife and kids after taking her in as a refugee.
These exclusive photos of Mariia Polonchuk, 39, show a very different side to the mother of three who once co-authored a Ukrainian cookbook and until now only featured in photos at a village festival.
Earlier this month, MailOnline revealed that the stunning Mariia began dating 52-year-old multimillionaire Overli after she entered the war. Ukraine with her sons and moved into Overlis’ £3 million Surrey mansion.
Shortly after arriving in the UK, Mariia was featured in a photo tweeted by a local MP and former Health Minister Jeremy Huntwho wrote: ‘It was great to meet a Ukrainian hosted by a local family… nothing more English than the village festival to welcome them.’
But Mariia’s former partner Andrey Sheldunov, father of her three sons, is a Kiev photographer who specializes in portraits and nudes, and Mariia has modeled sensational swimwear shoots for him in the past.
Her seductive social media portfolio shows she’s a natural for the camera, whether she’s sleek and sexy frolicking in the surf, jumping out of the water or draped on the beach.
This is Ukrainian amateur model Mariia Polonchuk – a mother of three – who seduced ex Wonga boss Haakon Overli to leave his wife and children after he took her in as a refugee
Last month, MailOnline revealed that the stunning Mariia began dating 52-year-old multimillionaire Overli after fleeing the war in Ukraine with her three children.
And in portraits, her piercing blue eyes captivate the viewer, in serious or smiling poses.
While it’s not clear if she and Andrey got married, they apparently had been partners for a long time, with all of her sons taking his last name.
Andrey also co-authored a Ukrainian cookbook with Mariia, and the couple was co-directors of a Kiev company called Kontakt Media from 2006 to June this year.
They seemed to be living a comfortable life before the war, taking foreign vacations.
Happy Families: Former Health Minister and South West Surrey MP Jeremy Hunt shared this photo with Mr Overli, his now ex-wife, their children and new girlfriend Mariia Polonchuk
Haakon Overli, 52, (right) is said to have started a love affair with the Eastern European woman just months after taking her into the family home in Surrey after the Russian invasion
Mariia, Andrey and their family originally lived in Ukraine’s second city, Kharkhiv, but recently moved to Kiev.
Mr Overli, the former boss of the disgraced company Wonga, is valued at £5million and is said to have lobbied the government to bring refugees from Ukraine to the UK since the invasion.
He reportedly began lobbying former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former Home Secretary Priti Patel for weeks in March to speed up the process of bringing his current girlfriend to Britain.
Mrs Polonchuk’s arrival in the UK earlier this year with her boys may have spared her eldest son, now 18, from being called to join the brutal war against the Russian invaders, which has claimed thousands of lives.
The family was able to join 52-year-old Norwegian-born Mr Overli, his wife and children at their sprawling estate in Surrey.
But just a few months after the Ukrainian family was granted a visa, Ms Polonchuk and Mr Overli left the conjugal home in Surrey, with her children, leaving behind his wife and school-aged children.
Andrey Sheldunov – Mariia’s long-term partner and father of her three children
Other photos and social media posts from Ukraine discovered by MailOnline provide 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 beautiful photographic portraits of his partner Mariia, affectionately calling her Manya or Masha in the caption.
And in 2015, the couple collaborated on a book about Ukrainian culture, history and cooking.
Translated into English as The great book of Ukrainian cuisine [The big book of Ukrainian cuisine]it received dozens of rave five-star reviews from readers on Amazon.
One said of the 2015 hardcover edition: ‘An absolutely authentic, really good cookbook with a very good selection of recipes. The best Ukrainian cookbook I know.’
Mariia’s former partner Andrey is a photographer back in Kiev specializing in portraits and nudes and Mariia was a model in some of his shoots
Mariia Polonchuk pictured with her long-term partner and father of her three children Andrey Sheldunov