SHE was a five-times-divorced parish councillor and granny who made it her mission to tackle rowdy behaviour in the leafy Cheshire village where she lived.

And he was the son of the world’s most-wanted man – Osama bin Laden – who had been trained in Al-Qaeda terrorist camps from the age of 14 and saw his beloved pets used to test chemical weapons.

Jane Felix-Browne, as she was then known, told how she married Omar bin Laden Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd

Jane, or Zaina as she is now known, and her husband Omar Bin Laden, the son of Osama Bin Laden Credit: BBC

But when Jane Felix-Browne, as she was then known, and Omar Bin Laden met two decades ago this month while horse-riding in Giza, Egypt, their admittedly extraordinary differences did not stop them falling in love.

Jane, then 51, who has since changed her name to Zaina Mohamad Al-Sabah, and Omar, then 26, say they fell in love almost instantly – even when, three days after they met, he revealed who his dad was.

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Speaking of their connection at the time, she said: “I just married the man I fell in love with – to me he’s just Omar. I hope people will take a step back and think [about] what it was like when they fell in love.”

Zaina was working as an interior designer and living in Moulton, Cheshire, which had a population of around 2,400 people, when she met him. Meanwhile, Omar was working as a scrap metal dealer and living in Saudi Arabia, having left Afghanistan in April 2001 because he refused his father’s requests to volunteer for suicide missions.

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The couple, pictured in 2010 Credit: Bernard Ashton – The Jattvibe

Omar Bin Laden, left, aged 15, in Afghanistan with his father Osama bin Laden, right

An archive copy from a local newspaper tells how the year before meeting Omar she was active in attempting to tackle a “surge of yobbish behaviour in the village”, going so far as to attend a special panel meeting.

There were complaints that “boisterous” teenagers were playing football “from teatime until dusk outside the old people’s bungalows” and “churning up the grass”.

“Maybe we could start a mentoring service to take on the worst children in the area – if they want help, mentors can help them,” she suggested.

So it’s extraordinary that little more than a year later she was married to Omar.

Zaina says she popped the question in September 2006, two weeks after meeting him, and they married that same month. However, their legal weddings took place in April 2007 in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Speaking at the time, Zaina, who resigned from her parish councillor post, defended her decision to wed Omar.

“I married the man I fell in love with,” she said. “I married a very quiet, very kind man. It was a fairytale romance.”

She added things were not perfect, with him finding it tricky to travel anywhere.

But she was hopeful he would be granted a British visa and they could settle in the UK.

At the time they were talking for hours on the phone and she was splitting her time between the UK and Saudi Arabia.

“Omar is wary of everyone,” she said. “He is constantly watching people who he feels might be following him… He is the son of Osama. But when we are together he forgets his life.”

However, after their marriage became public in July 2007, the stress of the media storm led to the couple “divorcing” just a few months later. Zaina said it was over fears they would be murdered.

Speaking in September 2007, she said while she was divorcing him, the marriage was not over as far as she was concerned.

“We have had to get divorced because of threats from two major sources in Saudi Arabia,” she said. “I know from whom the threats have come but I’m not prepared to say. The threats are not from the general public, not from the government.”

She added: “I have been living with my husband, it is a very happy marriage. We are both deeply in love. Very, very happy, did not want to be forced into this divorce. It is against Islam to be forced into any divorce and as far as I am concerned this divorce will never stand up in a Sharia court.”

She explained that she and Omar had plenty in common, including desserts and religion, adding: “We have a fantastic time.”

The Jattvibe revealed how Jane had tied the knot to Omar bin Laden in 2007 Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd

Omar bin Laden and Zaina, pictured in 2022 Credit: Max Molyneux – Commissioned by The Jattvibe

However, they didn’t actually divorce, and just one month later they were back together.

But in April 2008, the UK Government poured cold water over Zaina and Omar’s plans to settle in the UK, saying: “Exclusion from the United Kingdom is conducive to the public good… in the light of the character, conduct or association of the person seeking leave to enter it is undesirable to give him leave to enter.”

The decision – and a further denial banning them from seeking political asylum in Spain in November 2008 – prompted the couple to speak out.

In an interview with the New Statesman in November 2009, Omar spoke about his dad, then still a wanted man with a £12.5m bounty on his head following 9/11. “People are surprised when they learn that I am the son of Osama bin Laden,” he said.

“But once they get their wits in order, they are curious about my life and usually extend a hand of friendship, which leads me to believe that most people have very good hearts.”

He referred to him again after he was killed by US special forces in May 2011. This time his comments provoked more controversy.

Writing on behalf of his family in a letter sent to The New York Times, he blasted the operation as an “arbitrary killing” and said that his dad – who was responsible for the deaths of thousands of people when hijacked planes plummeted into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania – should have been “arrested and tried in a court of law so that truth is revealed to the people of the world.”

In 2010 they attempted to have a child together through IVF but the British surrogate mum miscarried their twins at ten weeks.

Eventually – in 2016 – the couple were allowed to settle in a village near Normandy, France, after Omar secured a residency permit as the spouse of a British national.

It was during the Covid lockdowns that he discovered a passion for painting artistic landscapes, which sold for thousands at international exhibitions.

He told The Jattvibe: “My favourite subject is mountains after living in Afghanistan for five years. They give me a safe feeling, like I’m untouchable.”

A self-professed “anglophile”, he claimed he loved the late Queen – making a TikTok tribute to her – and Zaina said he got on with her family.

However, their peaceful life wasn’t to last.. and it became clear he wasn’t “untouchable.”

In 2023, French authorities permanently banned Omar from the country after his X account posted a tribute on the anniversary of his dad’s death, praising him as a “martyr.” The account wrote: “Their blood is the lifeline of our faith until the day of judgement. May you rest in peace.”

Speaking to French media, Zaina denied it was him who posted it, claiming his profile had been hacked and the message had been uploaded without his consent by a confidant in Yemen.

It’s understood the couple, Zaina now 70 and Omar 46, now live in exile in Qatar.

As they mark 20 years since they first met, they’ve virtually retreated from the public eye.