Rio Ferdinand

Debbie Dawtrey moved from Cambridgeshire to south-western France in 2023 and opened a hotel, but she’s found that one of the most significant problems has been difficult to overcome

Many of us dream about relocating to some idyllic corner of Europe to soak up the sun and embrace the advantages of Mediterranean living. However, beyond the complications of European red tape – and the considerable cost – there’s another significant obstacle that numerous people fail to consider.

Debbie Dawtrey, who relocated from Buckden in Cambridgeshire to south-western France in 2023, reveals that one of the most substantial challenges she’s faced is feeling socially cut off.

Debbie, 64, established a boutique hotel in the Charente, situated in the charming village of Confolens, and explains that while she remains extremely occupied throughout the tourist season, the colder months can prove incredibly isolating.

She told The Times: “I didn’t know anyone in the area and while the summers are busy with guests, contacts are transient and the winters are especially hard as people hunker down and close the shutters.”

Debbie, who is unmarried, explains she’s discovered a method of reconstructing her social connections by arranging a monthly supper club for fellow expats: “Every month we’d take turns in hosting a dinner and had lots of fun,” she explains, “it helped broaden our social circle.”

Debbie emphasises that becoming isolated is remarkably easy when relocating far from relatives and friends, and recommends “you have to really make an effort to put yourself out there”.

Even when you’ve attempted to master the native tongue, the capacity to initiate spontaneous conversations can prove far more challenging than forming friendships back in Britain.

While some individuals might frequent a neighbourhood pub, or perhaps become members of a fitness centre, these are more readily available in bigger towns and cities. Establishing a fresh existence in the French countryside – or indeed in a remote UK community, can prove quite demanding.

Even those working with substantial financial resources can find themselves yearning for what they’ve left behind. Earlier this year, Kate Ferdinand spoke candidly about her homesickness following her relocation to Dubai with her footballer husband Rio.

On her ‘Blended’ podcast in February, Kate became emotional and confessed she was pining for her family and friends back home. Kate and Rio relocated to the UAE last August and while her husband is “loving” his new existence there, matters aren’t quite as positive for Kate.

“I am enjoying it, but I miss home quite a lot,” she acknowledged. “I can’t talk about it because I get upset. I feel like we’ve opened our eyes to a different world. But I love London. I do feel happy in Dubai, but I’m just missing a part of me.”

A source close to the pair told The Mirror that the Dubai move hasn’t turned out as Kate had anticipated, and she considers the gleaming Middle Eastern metropolis “soulless.”

They revealed: “She’s struggling. She’s really missing home. She’s not enjoying it. And even though she’s got the kids and she’s got Rio there, she’s homesick. She can’t stop it and it’s very difficult. It’s just not home.” Kate is also feeling the absence of her stepsons. While Rio’s daughter Tia, 14, made the transition to the UAE alongside the family, his elder sons Lorenz, 19, and Tate, 17, stayed behind in the UK to pursue their promising football careers – a decision that has caused Kate considerable heartache.

Opening up on her podcast, she admitted: “I miss the big boys a lot and I’m struggling with that. I know this decision is right for my younger children and as a family we are settled there, but the boys are following their football careers. So they’re doing what they want to do, otherwise they’d be with us.”

She went on to say: “But it’s very hard because we’ve been through so much as a family and we’ve always been together and that’s a huge adjustment.”

RIO and Kate Ferdinand may be the most high profile Brits to quit Dubai – but they definitely won’t be the last, a top businessman told The Sun.

Wolfgang Douglas – a UK investor and former Dubai resident – says his phone is “red hot” with people trying to get their money out of the Gulf State.

And he says it is not just the war – which has seen the influencer capital of the world besieged by missiles – that is driving away Brits.

It comes as England and Manchester United legend Rio and his wife Kate fled their £6.5million mansion – moving to Portugal.

Wolfgang told The Sun: “I am not surprised to see celebrities like [Rio & Kate] fleeing Dubai with their children.

“The dream of Dubai was sold on safety which is now undeniably not true.

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“They sold it on being the Switzerland of the Middle East – untouched by the conflicts around them.

“Sadly, they now find themselves under attack and in the middle of a tinderbox.”

Dubai is known as the playground of the ultra rich – with social-media loving influencers flouting their lives with supercars, yachts and sun-drenched bikini snaps.

Some 240,000 Brit expats have moved out to the playground city – lured by the promise of a lavish lifestyle and low tax.

Expats make up between 85 and 90 per cent of Dubai’s population.

But beneath the glitzy exterior, Wolfgang – who runs The Wolf MBA business academy – says people are now waking up to the city’s dark side.

He claims that it is not just influencers desperate to return to London, but also private investors and ultra-wealthy families.

And he knows how bad things can get in the city – with him having to spend millions of pounds fighting to get his dad Albert freed from a Dubai jail after he was unjustly banged up for a crime he didn’t commit.

Wolfgang told The Sun those “seduced” by the allure of the city are fleeing – but the money is escaping even quicker, with the city now facing a “potentially catastrophic exodus”.

He said: “The Iran war has crashed the Gulf dream, and the real story isn’t expats fleeing Dubai, but how the money is escaping even faster.

“Working discreetly as an intermediary for the private investment houses or family offices of the ultra-wealthy, my phone has been red hot with thousands of calls and messages since late February.”

He went on: “People are threatened or even imprisoned for speaking out or filming drone strikes, but while they weigh options and chase plane tickets, the smart money has been moving – extremely fast.

“Influencers continue posting luxury content while insisting everything is normal, but there are echoes of the Titanic here.”

Wolfgang works in “asset liquidation” – essentially converting assets into cash.

He says he is helping connecting the wealthy with people who can flog property and cars so they can get out of the Gulf.

Wolfgang said one family – who he cannot name – has asked him to help redirect some £250million worth of investments out the region, and instead they are looking at opportunities in London.

Many Gulf natives kept their assets in the West, particularly London while they convinced Brits to move their over to the Middle East.

Wolfgang said: “Fact is, Dubai sold a lie via public and social media, actively undermining confidence in London and the wider UK by highlighting crime, high taxes and political instability, while trumpeting the Gulf as a glamorous tax-free sanctuary for wealth.”

He went on: “While telling the world London is unsafe, many native Gulf investors kept their wealth here all along and continued to live and operate out of Mayfair, Belgravia and Knightsbridge, even as their media was persuading Brits to sell up and ‘join them’ in the Gulf.”

“So, property prices in parts of central London fell 20-30 per cent in recent years.

“And who bought those properties?

“The very people who told Brits to sell yet never left their own London mansions.”

Wolfgang added: “So, after years of being battered by negative narratives, this could be the moment capital begins flowing back into London.

“You can build the tallest skyscrapers in the world, shout about luxury and tax-free wealth and claim accolades like having the world’s only seven-star hotel, but when uncertainty strikes, capital returns to long-established safe institutions.”

And he warned influencers simply “can’t admit the truth” and are continuing to sell the “Gulf mirage”.

Wolfgang has witnessed first hand the disturbing side of Dubai as his dad Albert was banged up in a disgusting prison .

Businessman Albert says the four-year ordeal in a hellhole Dubai jail stripped him of any shred of ­dignity and left him “feeling less than nothing”.

He had been arrested for ­financial fraud after simply putting his signature to a piece of paper related to son Wolfgang, who also ran a company in the United Arab Emirates.

He claims he witnessed suicides and ­prisoners being raped, rubbed shoulders with killers, and survived on meagre portions of rice and weak soup.

Before his arrest, he enjoyed a life of luxury, driving a Rolls-Royce and living in a £6million mansion on Palm Jumeirah island, where celebrities including David and Victoria Beckham and Brad Pitt own villas.

He made his fortune by cornering the market in wooden flooring in the Gulf after moving 4,500 miles from where to Dubai in 1998.

Son Wolfgang followed him out in 2008 to set up his own flooring firm, Timberwolf.

He returned to the UK full time in 2019.