A mum-of-22 whose millionaire husband has been arrested on money laundering charges has admitted life is “hard”.
Russian woman Kristina Ozturk, 24, lived with her 57-year-old husband Galip Ozturk in a picturesque coastal town in the Georgian republic of Adjara prior to his arrest on May 31.
Kristina already had one child from a previous relationship when she met Galip, a Turkish businessman who reportedly owns a bus company and a hotel.
The pair spent more than $260,000 to surrogates between March 2020 and July 2021 producing 21 children – and spend a further $124,000 a year on 16 live-in nannies who care for their large brood.
However, their plans to grow their family even further, have recently been put on hold after Ozturk was arrested following a police raid.
The bus baron was detained on charges related to money laundering and falsifying documents, Bloomberg reported recently.
According to the report, a local TV channel showed footage of special forces raiding a hotel that Ozturk owns in the seaside trade hub bordering Turkey.
Since being taken into custody, Kristina has been vocal in sharing her struggles on social media, writing it was “hard” without him.
“The feeling of loneliness does not leave me even with so many close people around,” she wrote in an Instagram post, loosely translated into English.
“I’m used to the fact that my husband is always at home, always there.
“Now it’s more difficult for me than ever, I can’t stand silence, I can’t stand his absence, I can’t sleep and wake up alone.”
The couple met in Georgia when Kristina, a former stripper, was on holiday there from Russia.
Ozturk fled to the country in 2018 after being sentenced to life imprisonment in relation to a 1996 murder in his home country of Turkey, The Mirror reports.
He was charged with ordering the murder of a man named Kuvvet Köseoğlu.
In another post, the young mother – who is 33 years younger than her husband – detailed the support she’s received since her husband’s arrest.
The couple first hit headlines when Kristina revealed she had plans to welcome more than 100 children using surrogates, declaring she would be happy to spend more than $1.5 million to make her dream become a reality.
It costs around 8000 euros ($A12,500) to legally use a surrogate in Georgia.
Counselling and legal paperwork are essential for the surrogates, who carry the babies that are genetically the biological children of Kristina and her husband.
“The clinic in Batumi chooses surrogate mothers for us and takes full responsibility for the process,” she explained on social media previously.
“We are not personally acquainted with surrogate mothers and do not have direct contacts with them in order to avoid problems after pregnancy.”
