Splitting up at 18, for two months, broke my heart
DAISY STEEL, 48, a radio newsreader, lives near Frome, somerset, with husband Jonathan, also 48, an iT programmer. They have five children: Jack, 28, Poppy, 25, Jasmine, 22, Ben, 18, and Joe, 13.
DAISY SAYS: We’re a family of firstlove couples. My parents have been married for 64 years, Jonathan’s parents recently celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, and he and I started dating aged 17 while studying at the same sixth-form college in Oxford.
I couldn’t eat or sleep for thinking about him. He told me very quickly that I was the one.
When we were 18, I panicked — it all seemed so much, so young — and I split up with him for two months.
But after dating other boys, I realised it was Jonathan I wanted after all.
When I fell pregnant aged 20, friends and family told us it wouldn’t last and we’d be insane to have a baby.
But our parents had a meeting and were very supportive, encouraging us to continue with our plans to study at university, despite the birth of Jack in 1991.
At my brother’s wedding in July 1995, I pushed everyone out of the way to catch the bride’s bouquet and, taking the hint, Jonathan proposed that same day. We got married a year later, by which time we had two children.
Having parents with strong marriages has helped. When things got rocky, we’ve worked them out, because that’s what we’ve seen them do. There were three particularly tough years when the children and I moved to Somerset for a better life, while Jonathan remained in London during the week. On the verge of growing apart, marriage counselling saved us and Jonathan relocated permanently to Somerset. Now the children are older, we get to be a couple again sometimes — last November we holidayed in Sri Lanka on our own.
Our lives have been inextricably entwined for more than 30 years, there’s still sexual attraction between us, and Jonathan has the most brilliant sense of humour. So if we have a row, we can eventually laugh it off.
JONATHAN SAYS: My feelings for Daisy were lifechanging, even at 17. I’d never felt so strongly about anyone before. Our relationship was intense and passionate.
When she left me for two months, I was devastated.
It took a while to take her back, because she really did break my heart. Friends gave me a hard time about our relationship because we were so young — especially when Daisy fell pregnant with Jack.
But while many of them have since headed to the divorce courts when things have got tough in their own marriages, we’ve stuck things out.
That’s partly because our own parents have been great role models, but also because we’ve been together for so long that we know each other inside out.