The dramatic downfall of the Salim and Aysha Mehajer love story

SALIM Mehajer has not been coping with his wife's estrangement well. From birthday snubs to foul-mouthed rants, the couple's breakup has been tortuous. 

THE sorry saga of the slow implosion of Salim Mehajer and his wife Aysha's marriage took another turn this week with the embattled property developer and former politician led into a Sydney court into the back of a paddy wagon.

The charges are new, two counts of breaching an apprehended violence order (AVO) relating to his estranged wife and one of dangerous driving over an unrelated car crash near where she lives, but the tale of their break up has been going on for more than a year. 

It all started so well with their August 2015 wedding that closed a street and bewildered a nation.

But very quickly the cracks began to show. From Aysha Learmonth's (she now uses her maiden name)  awkward birthday bash no show to the foul-mouthed tirade directed at her caught on camera, it's been a tortuous break up. 

Just last week, Mr Mehajer insisted  his dream of love had not died.  “We are not (separated), we are still together, we are talking,” Mr Mehajer told a Sydney court. 

But if they really are loved up, Ms Learmonth  has a funny way of showing it. In August, she walked into a Sydney police station and asked that a fresh AVO be put in place to restrict her husband from approaching her. In a statement tendered to Sutherland Local Court in July  in court, she said: “I’m looking over my shoulder constantly and do not know what he is capable of.”

The pair have now been estranged for longer than they were married. How did a ceremony so spectacular lead to a break up so bitter?

Salim and Aysha Mehajer's August 2015 wedding

DIAMONDS AND PEARLS

On her big day, clad in a 22kg extravaganza of French lace and Swarovski pearls and diamonds, she easily outshone any flashy motor.

The spectacle would catapult the couple to national stardom. He was the successful Sydney property developer, his apartments rising in the commuter belt east of Parramatta; she was the Wollongong beauty therapist, originally called April, who fell for the charms of the man dubbed “the councillor of conspicuous consumption”.

When Salim and Aysha first started sating she looked very different.

‘I DON’T RECOGNISE HER’

The transformation, from blonde haired April, to dark-haired beauty with chiselled looks, was miraculous.

So convincing was Ms Learmonth's metamorphosis that three months before the wedding she was proclaimed Miss Personality Miss Lebanon Australia.

“I don’t recognise her but I think mostly anyone who knew her back then wouldn’t recognise her now,” Tracey Rovere, former principal of the Illawarra College of Beauty Therapy, who trained “April”, told the Daily Telegraph.

“Her hair was straight and red and then, for graduation night, she surprised us all by going and getting this amazing spray tan that concealed her freckles and had her hair lightened to strawberry blonde. She had this total Cinderella moment.”

The happy couple raising money at a local fast food outlet.

MARRIED BLISS

For a while all was well in the Mehajer household, his beaming wife now a constant feature of his Instagram feed. 

When her husband, a few months later, graciously offered his services to the nation as a future prime minister, the former Mrs Mehajer stood majestically behind him.

By November 2015, the partnership went from the romantic to the business as she became director of several of her husband’s companies.

In February 2016, she dramatically went into bat for her husband, pleading for his political life writing to the then  Local Government Minister Paul Toole, asking him not to sack Auburn Council which would strip Mr Mehajer of his mayoral robes.

In public at least, the pair were all smiles,  solid as rock, but the facade was fracturing. 

The only person not at Aysha's 30th was Aysha.

NO SHOW AT BIRTHDAY PARTY

In April 2016, Mr Mehajer held an extravagant 30th birthday party for his wife which included shelling out $50,000 for US musicians Tyga and Omarion to attend.

The rappers took happy snaps on the mini-mansion’s illuminated spiral staircase and posed with a birthday cake.

The only thing missing? The birthday girl. She hadn’t been seen for weeks.

WHO IS HOODA?

Soon afterwards, a romantic video emerged of Mr Mehajer — but it featured another woman.

The video showed Mr Mehajer and a woman identified as “Hooda” embracing and, in some images, kissing.

Hooda bore a striking resemblance to Mr Mehajer’s wife.

“God sent me an angel” is daubed across one image of the couple. “I be his bonnie, he be my clyde [sic]”, is written across another.

A still from the video aired on A Current Affair

'ONLY DEATH WILL US PART'

Later in the same month, Mr Mehajer was forced to furiously deny that his marriage was splintering despite reports he went to a house his wife was staying in and was found “yelling” and “screaming” while trying to knock the door in.

Mr Mehajer allegedly went to the house, in Wollongong, and demanded the keys to a Mercedes car his wife had been using, reported the Daily Telegraph. She was said to have escaped to the Gold Coast.

NSW Police, acting for Ms Learmonth lodged an application for an apprehended violence order (AVO) against her husband. Mr Mehajer consented to an order that he could not harass, assault, menace or stalk his wife and was prevented from going within 50 metres of her home and workplace, without making any admissions.

But Mr Mehajer insisted the dream was alive,  telling news.com.au at the time, “only death will do us apart”.  

At the August 2016 wedding of another of the Mehajer clan, Khadijeh, Ms Learmonth was absent. Mr Mehajer entered the ballroom with another woman.

"I'M GONNA RAPE YOU"

Also in August, a video emerged of a foul-mouthed Mr Mehajer yelling at his wife and threatening her parents. 

Shouting in English and Arabic, he said in the video aired on A Current Affair: “Aysha, you’ve got five minutes to give me a call! Give me a call in five minutes ... I’m gonna rape your mum and your f***ing dad! Call me now!” he says in the video. “Aysha, I hope you die, you sl*t.

“And I hope you die, you f***ing sl*t. You f***ed 12 guys, you sl*t. You f***ed 12 guys. You f***ing sl*t. You f***ing sl*t.”

Mr Mehajer claimed it was a set-up. “Aysha is a beautiful, warm, amazing individual, whom I believe was betrayed, or set-up by someone who supplied A Current Affair with these out of context videos to make a sensationalised story,” he told news.com.au.

A tattoo Mr Mehajer reportedly got of his wife.

‘OUR LOVE IS TOO GREAT’

There was one place the pair were still together - Mr Mehajer's Instagram feed, where he uploaded happy snaps of he and his wife.

“Our love is too great to destroy,” said one post following the alleged incident in Wollongong.

He insisted to news.com.au the image was recent but the two had not been spotted together for months.

BACK TOGETHER?

Then, in January of this year, it seemed the pair had overcome their differences. On Ms Learmonth's Instagram feed appeared a post of  a smiling Salim.  “Don’t judge my choices without understanding my reasons,” she had apparently captioned the image. 

Just a day later, another post appeared. "No longer hacked ... for now" followed by an eye-rolling emoticon. The photo of Mr Mehajer had been deleted.

Salim Mehajer leaves a police van heading into court.

BREACHED AVO

Two years and three months after the pair celebrated their wedding on a Sydney street surrounded by hundreds of well wishers, Mr Mehajer found himself in a cell just a few kilometres away, accused of getting too close to his wife. 

On Monday, dressed in a hoodie, jeans and thongs he smiled at officers who led him to the cells. Later in the day as a magistrate agreed to release him on bail after he raised $10,000 surety with just minutes to spare.

Mr Mehajer’s estranged wife told police she “felt scared for my safety” when she saw his white Audi behind her Sydney home late last night.

Aysha Learmonth's Instagram features little of her husband.

Ms Learmonth had been walking to her friend’s car to get McDonald’s when she saw the vehicle. Panicking, she ran inside and called police.

A few minutes later, police allege Mr Mehajer crashed his car. He was arrested at the scene and taken to Campsie Police Station.

An AVO banning Mr Mehajer from contact with Ms Learmonth has been in place since last year. Police alleged the breaches related to him driving to the laneway behind her home and posting a picture on Instagram of the couple when they were still together.

Just a few days ago, Mr Mehajer posted a picture of he and Ms Learmonth. This one with the caption, "here is a photo I hope will make you happy".

As part of his strenuous bail conditions,  he is not permitted to use Instagram or any other social media platforms to contact his ex-wife or witnesses.

He will return to court on the latest charges in late March.