EastEnders icon Cheryl Fergison fell for toyboy over Skype after daring five-word response

Rising to stardom as bumbling Heather Trott in EastEnders, Cheryl Fergison's turbulent journey rivals any Albert Square storyline. Now, nearing her 60th birthday, her explosive memoir, Behind The Scenes, offers a raw glimpse into her most unforgettable experiences.

In new excerpts from her book, Cheryl discloses how she first encountered her Moroccan spouse, Yassine el Jamouni, 39-who is 21 years her junior-after developing feelings during their online conversations. And according to her close friend and EastEnders legend Steve McFadden, who penned the foreword: "When Cheryl tells a story, people listen. She is engaging and holds court like no one else.

"Yassine, or Yas, as I came to call him, was warm, funny and endlessly curious," Cheryl writes, reports the Mirror. "I was a 45-year-old single mum, divorced and juggling work with caring for my kid.

"He was 24 and living in a suburb in Agadir, Morocco, he fixed computers in hotels, spoke Arabic, French and German and was teaching himself English from tourists, telly, music and now ... me. I was basically his human Duolingo, and we started typing to each other late into the night."

Their digital romance blossomed as he shared photographs of himself with his relatives. She went on: "Of course, I was struck by his handsome, brooding looks with caramel skin and artful stubble, but the chat also felt innocent."

Still in EastEnders at the time, Cheryl continues: "Soon, we were messaging every single day. I would race home from the set after a long day filming, eager to see if Yas had written and there it would be: a little flurry of messages like modern-day love letters, all waiting to be opened."

Wary of revealing too much about herself, her reluctance only sparked Yas's intrigue further. Cheryl writes: "His next message popped up a second later: 'I don't understand. Are you in MI5?' I howled.

"The thought of me sneaking about in a trench coat with a handgun, drinking martinis and defusing bombs between takes on Albert Square was so ridiculous."

After finally admitting to being a "larger lady" with trust issues, she started opening up to the dashing Moroccan and they moved on to nightly Skype audio calls. Cheryl was genuinely falling for Yas.

She writes: "He started signing off each call with: 'Goodnight, beautiful.' And one night, just before hanging up, he said it, 'I think I love you.' "I whispered it back, heart thudding, 'I think I love you too.'".

Her emotions kept intensifying until, closing her laptop one evening some time later, she resolved: "I'm going to meet this man." That's how she ended up at Gatwick Airport, being spotted by EastEnders fans, whilst waiting for a flight to Casablanca, Morocco, where she would catch a 35-minute transfer to Yas's hometown of Agadir.

Upon arrival, the nerves began to kick in. She penned: "My heart started to pound. I can't breathe. I can't breathe. What am I doing here?". You've flown to a country you've never been to before, to meet a man you've never seen in person and you don't even speak the language. Are you completely mad?"

"I looked around for Yas, but I couldn't see him anywhere. I fumbled for my bottle of water in my bag, hands shaking, when my trusty battered black case with the purple ribbon tied to the handle toppled over with a thud.

"I bent to grab it, another hand reached down at the same time. It was his hand, Yas's hand. And there he was." Just months later, she recalls Yas telling her: "'I knew the second I saw you, Cheryl. That you were my future wife and that I was going to marry you.'".

And when she eventually accepted his proposal and told her EastEnders mate Steve McFadden, she writes: "Steve gave a low chuckle and stood up to pull me into one of his trademark bear hugs.

"'Blimey,' he said, giving me a squeeze, 'it only took you going halfway across the world to find a bloke....You'd better tell the scriptwriters then. Heather Trott getting a Moroccan husband might be the best storyline they've had in years!'".

But their wedding on 2 May, 2011, was far from romantic. She penned: "It was the worst wedding I've ever been to. It was just me and Yas in a register office in Agadir.

"It was a small, tiled room that honestly felt about the size of a public toilet. The bloke marrying us looked like the spitting image of Mr Bean. Married in a tiled toilet by a Moroccan version of Mr Bean. Only my life, honestly!"

In 2015, Cheryl received a devastating cancer diagnosis affecting her womb and was informed she required a hysterectomy. She recalls: "The doctor came in, closed the door gently behind him and gave me that look. 'Cheryl,' he said softly, 'I'm really sorry. It's not good news. You have cancer. Stage II womb cancer.'"

"It felt like a soap storyline, like I was watching myself on an episode of EastEnders. My first thought was, am I going to die?' My second, how do I tell Alex? Then Yas popped into my head. He was in Morocco. What would he say? Would he want me when he knew kids were totally off the table?".

"I wanted to scream, 'Why me?' I wanted the director to yell 'cut' and for the scene to be over and for me to be able to walk off set. But somewhere underneath all the shock and sadness, something flickered deep inside. I'd been knocked down before and every single time I'd stood back up. I could do it again."

Thrust into premature menopause following her hysterectomy, she endured some absurdly tragic moments that countless menopausal women will recognise. Following a frantic hunt for her missing keys one evening, she recounts: "The next morning, I go to heat up some milk and there they are.

"My keys are in the bloody microwave. Brilliant, Cheryl. Top marks. Why on earth are they in the microwave? Was I planning to defrost them? It turns out that having no womb means hormonal doom.

"We're talking mood swings, brain fog, hot flushes that make you feel like you're slow roasting in an oven, night sweats and tears over nothing. Isn't it just marvellous being a woman?".