HOW THE WRONG NUMBER LED TO THE RIGHT MAN — AND A BLISSFUL MARRIAGE
For 50 years top writers have shared life-defining moments with Femail. Here we reveal what happened next . . .
WHAT I WROTE THEN
hoMe alone with time on my hands, I decided to phone a female friend for a chat. But a man answered.
‘You’re not my friend!’ I said in confusion. ‘no,’ he said, in a low, gentle voice. ‘But won’t I do instead?’
I’d dialled the wrong number, a number that would change my life.
efi’s voice entranced me. We shared a few minutes of banter, then I reluctantly hung up.
At the time I was 35 and single, having ended a 13-year relationship because my boyfriend didn’t want children and I did.
I wasn’t looking for love but efi had sounded sane, funny and very kind. After a few minutes’ deliberation, I pressed redial.
‘It’s me again,’ I said, telling him I’d enjoyed our brief chat so much. he was on a work phone, unable to trace my number. he said he was glad I’d called back.
After three weeks oflengthy phone conversations, we decided to meet and I felt just as comfortable with him in person. Six months later I’ve agreed to marry him.
WHAT I DID NEXT
hoW astonishing to think this was nearly 20 years ago. efi and I had our simple, beautiful wedding in 2000. Meanwhile, the story of how we met caught the world’s attention.
An American TV company even made a halfhour film about us, Beyond Chance, for the Romance Channel. Cringingly, we played ourselves. The closing scene had us walking off into the sunset together: the ultimate happy ending.
But real life is, of course, made up of highs and lows.
I’d parted from my much-older ex, as he didn’t want children and I just couldn’t bear to give up on my dream of having them. efi, seven years my junior at 28, was his polar opposite, insisting he wanted a large family — four children — as much as I did.
But things didn’t turn out to be as easy as that. The wedding date set, we began trying for a baby. Sadly, I miscarried, which was very upsetting for us both.
We shared the joy of our eldest son’s birth in our first year of marriage; then the sorrow of losing three more babies before our second child was born in 2004. By then I was 41. It felt as if time had run away from us.
We agreed that our fantastic boys David and ethan — now 15 and 18 — completed our family, and we would focus on providing the best life that we could give them. We were both running our own businesses: efi in property and finance, while I had founded my Alison at home interiors brand. I also launched the Make It Your Business initiative, in support offemale entrepreneurs.
having started our life together in a rented basement flat, over the next decade we worked our way up the property ladder. The drill was: buy, renovate, sell, repeat. We did that seven exhausting times. Finally, in 2009, we moved into our forever home, a beautiful townhouse in London’s Belgravia.
Both self-made, we were utterly determined to give our boys a private education and a wonderful home to grow up in.
We have other interests, too: I recently put myself forward as prospective Conservative Mayor ofLondon 2020.
efi and I remain very much in love. I always pinch myself when I think back to how a wrong number put us together.
But the ultimate proof of our relationship’s success is our children. We couldn’t be prouder ofour sons — our youngest fences for england, while his big brother writes and sings jazz.
I know people will look at me and think: ‘You really did get your perfect fairy-tale ending.’ In some ways they’d be right. But underpinning everything efi and I have built is relentless effort.
Chance might have brought us together, but we’re the ones who’ve made it work ever since.
‘Cringingly, we played ourselves in a film about how we met’