The couple who divorced and then remarried 26 years later.
They married in 1977 and divorced seven years later, but Ann McCresh realised Chris Jackson was still the love of her life after 26 years apart
My lip wobbled, my breath came in gasps, but I refused to cry. So I fought back my tears and waited for my brother Michael to arrive. He was coming to pick me up from my marital home and I needed to stay strong. I was 27 and leaving my husband Chris.
We’d been together seven years and I still loved him, but he was a longlong-distance lorry driverdr and I didn’t see him for weeks at a time.
I had moved hundreds of miles to be with him, leaving my friends and family behind. It had been wonderful when Chris, 32, was at home but it felt more and more like that was a rarity and I was too young to be living virtually on my own. He always told me he loved me and I believed him but it was difficult.
There wasn’t a spark that brought things to a head. There was no argument. We kept talking about how we could make it work. But Chris said he couldn’t give up his job as it was the family business and he didn’t want to let his father down, and I couldn’t continue to live like that.
So, there it was. An impasse. So earlier that day, in 1984, as he’d prepared to head off for another long trip I told him I’d decided to leave. Then I phoned Michael who now, after helping pack the car, turned to me and Chris.
“This is a waste of my time,” he grumbled. “You’ll be back together