A business owner lives the life of luxury in Dubai has reflected on her humble beginning in life - after being raised in the care system in the UK.
Emily Abraham is the co-founder of pre-loved designer boutique Love Luxury and has found fame in her 40s alongside husband Adam and 11-year-old daughter Moo.
The family’s TikTok account has over 1.9 million followers, while their business resells luxury pre-loved goods, often for hundreds of thousands of pounds.
But the entrepreneur's lavish life in Dubai is a far cry from her upbringing, as she grew up in foster care after her mother died when she was just six years old.
When Emily moved into care with her foster parents John and Elaine in the West Country, she explained she didn't know how to eat with a knife and fork and arrived filthy dirty and riddled with nits.
Emily Abraham grew up in care and now runs a TikTok account with millions of followers and a luxury business dealing with designer items
Speaking to FEMAIL, Emily said: 'They gave me my first semblance of normality that I'd had in my entire six years.
'Being with them was very positive to me because they were normal people and a normal family. I had a mum and a dad and they had their own three children.
'They're Christian people and they taught me values. I had a foul mouth when I moved in because I came from a person who was a drug addict and very free spirited.
'They taught me not to talk like that and how to treat people with respect.'
Before moving into permanent care, Emily was already moving in and out of temporary care from the age of five as her mother - a drug addict - was often absent.
One day, in February 1984, her mother didn't pick her up from school and the next day she was still missing.
Emily was told on the following Monday that her mother had been found dead. With a lack of other relatives capable of looking after her and having never met her dad, Emily moved in with John and Elaine for the next seven years.
Emily continued: 'I had a lot of lessons with them at that time. One of them that stands out in my brain is that my brother taught me how to tie my shoelaces and he paid me 50p for doing it.
Emily's business Love Luxury deals with items worth hundreds of thousands of pounds (pictured with her daughter Moo)
A younger Emily is pictured with her mother before she died and before going into care
Emily, husband Adam and Moo (pictured outside their Knightsbridge store) have now relocated to Dubai
Emily credits her thick skin and resilience to her time spent in foster care, admitting she felt 'unwanted' at the time
'And I was over the moon because I bought so many sweets with that money!
'I cannot thank them enough for everything they did for me - things that normal people would instill in their children but that I wasn't given for the first years of my life.'
Emily eventually moved out to live with her grandmother at 13 - but is still in touch with John and Elaine to this day and they are due to fly out to visit her in Dubai next week.
She said her love of luxurious things is something she has always had - and stems from watching her grandfather buying gold and spending hours sorting it out.
Emily's grandmother was a seamstress and made exquisite dresses and velvet coats.
Emily calls herself a 'magpie' and said she was always aware of good quality things - even at a time when she didn't have any of her own.
Eventually she met Adam, now her husband, and together the two of them created Love Luxury, their family-run business that resells designer items.
The brands includeHermes, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Rolex, Cartier, Patek Philippe, Richard Mille, Van Cleef & Arpel, all coming with an expensive price tag.
The businesswoman now works with brands such as Hermes, Chanel and Louis Vuitton in her luxury reselling business
Emily always said she was found of luxurious things - even when she didn't have any of her own
Her lavish life in Dubai is a far cry from her upbringing - which was filled with difficult moments
Though the business has boomed - especially since the pandemic when other luxury outlets were unavailable - Emily and Adam still try to meet personally with as many of their customers as possible.
In July 2023, the family made the move to Dubai to expand their business, though Adam still divides his time between the UAE and Knightsbridge, where the Love Luxury shop is based.
Even now, Emily remembers her time in foster care and feels like she has brought vital lessons from her time there to her business.
She said: 'I think that when your child is in foster care you've got two routes you can go down - the destructive route or the positive route.
'For many years I was on the destructive route and I think that what I took from being a child in foster care was that I wasn't good enough. Nobody wanted me and even though that wasn't really the truth, that's how it felt.
'When I realised, actually that's as far from the truth as it could be, it helped me to see everyone and everything in a new light, I took resilience from that.
'Sometimes things get to me but I always take something from that negative that happened and try to learn from it and I believe that I got that skill from being in the system. I've seen so many different sides to life.
'I'm also very empathetic and understanding to human beings in general and it helps me to be a more rounded human being in business with my clients and my team. I'm very warm-hearted and very open.'
The family's TikTok account has over 1.9 million followers, while their business resells luxury pre-loved goods
Emily is pictured aged nine months with her mother - she began moving in and out of foster care from five years old
The business began to boom in 2020 when other luxury outlets were forced to close due to the pandemic
Emily has always been quick at picking up new skills, and she soon learned how to tell whether an item was authentic and people would turn to her to answer questions.
She has run a TikTok account for Love Luxury for around a year and a half - and ever since, business has sky-rocketed to the extent that she says she 'can't even quantify it'.
She also posts relatable marriage content, advice and informational videos, all of which help to keep the brand in people's minds.
Success has come to Emily in her 40s and at first she said she was 'shocked and appalled' by the 'dark side' to social media.
Over time, she came to realise that the benefits of social media far outweighed the difficult comments she was receiving.
She said: 'Although in the beginning I was shocked and appalled by the things that people were saying about me, I very quickly got over it.
'I am very aware that not a lot of people are like me. But I think that because of my childhood I am who I am today with this thick skin.'
