In 2005, the story of Valya Isayeva shocked viewers of a popular talk show on Channel One. On Andrei Malakhov’s programme, a 10-year-old girl from Moscow announced that she was expecting a child with a 19-year-old Tajik migrant worker named Habib.
Habib rented a room in the flat where Valya lived with her grandmother. The girl had no parents: her mother abused alcohol and once left home without returning. To feed her granddaughter, her grandmother got a job at the market. There she met migrants from Tajikistan, and one of them, Habib, asked her to stay with them temporarily.
Valya recalled that Habib immediately took a liking to her and their relationship developed rapidly. While her grandmother worked, they were alone together. Habib was not embarrassed that Valya was only a second-grader.
A few months later, the girl became pregnant, which caused a strong reaction in society, and Habib was taken up by the police. He was about to be convicted of having an affair with a minor, but Valya claimed that it was her own love.
Khabib still appeared before the court, receiving a suspended sentence and a ban on cohabitation with Valya until her 18th birthday. But the young couple, who became parents of a baby girl Amina, were not going to part.
‘Of course, Habib stayed with us. How else? We have a daughter. We just hid him, because there was not enough money neither for rent, nor for the maintenance of the family’, – shared Valya.
When Valya turned 18, she and Habib officially formalised their marriage. TNT channel organised their wedding in an Arab restaurant in the centre of Moscow, inviting 1200 guests.
A year later, their son Amir was born. The eldest daughter Amina helped her mum look after the baby, while Valya started her studies. Habib worked as a taxi driver, and the public’s interest in their family remained high. In 2017, Channel One offered the family to star in a new project, promising a large reward.
‘Producers came up with a scenario where I was supposed to claim adultery and my husband was supposed to allegedly beat me up. The role of my ‘lover’ was played by our neighbour Victor, although he has his own family,’ Valya said. When she confessed that she was expecting her third child, producers offered to state that the child was not from Khabib, but Valya refused. In 2018, she gave birth to her son Damir.
Now Valya works as a secretary, and her daughter Amina is already 14 years old. The girl is fond of make-up and helps her mother choose clothes. Valya and Amina have become not only relatives, but also close friends.
Valya and Habib dream of building a house in the Moscow region using maternity capital so that their children Amir and Damir grow up in nature.
Despite the difficulties, the spouses have preserved their relationship. They no longer seek publicity: neither Valya nor Khabib keep social networks and avoid interviews.
