IT’S HOL I found my Malaga lover on Facebook after 20yrs... then sneakily befriended his partner so I could steal him back
FOR more than 20 years Nicky James could not hear the love song I Swear without breaking down in tears.
The All-4-One hit took her back to a Spanish poolside where she met Scott Carter – the boyfriend she let slip through her fingers.
Nicky was 17 so at first it seemed this was a teenage holiday romance.
But it was much more than that. He was the one.
Over the years, Scott was in her thoughts every day as she went t hrough a series of f ailed relationships and had six kids.
So when she finally tracked him down two years ago on Facebook and discovered he was in a relationship – she decided to act.
Nicky, now 40, did something most women will find outrageous.
She wasn’t about to let the love of her life go again but the only way forward she could think of meant using underhand tactics.
Nicky befriended his new girlfriend and persuaded her to help the two former sweethearts get back in touch – before stealing Scott.
Recycling worker Scott, now 40, had also been searching for Nicky for two decades and when the pair met two months later they couldn’t resist sharing a passionate kiss.
Now the girlfriend who Nicky used is history and the sweethearts are set to marry in August.
Soulmate
Full- time mum Nicky said: “It might sound bad but when Scott and I kissed I didn’t really feel any guilt.
“People might call me a home-wrecker but when you love someone you love them and I wasn’t going to let him go again.
“I knew he was my soulmate and we were meant to be together. I’d let true love slip through my fingers all those years ago. Now I’d found Scott again I could never let him go.
“His girlfriend blamed me when they broke up but Scott assured me they’d been on the rocks anyway.”
Nicky and Scott became inseparable after meeting as shy teenagers on family holidays in Malaga in 1994.
Back in the UK they dated for three months, although she lived in London and he in Kidderminster, We s t Midlands. Neither could drive.
She said: “As soon as I saw Scott in Spain I thought we’d stay together forever.
“For a while we did stay in touch. I remember sitting in his bedroom in Kidderminster kissing. It couldn’t have been more romantic.”
But train fares cost them a fortune and there was little modern technology for them to stay in touch. They made the heartbreaking decision to split.
Nicky said: “I told Scott it wasn’t going to work. But even as I was saying the words, it didn’t feel right and I cried for days.”
Months later Nicky met another man and they married in 1997. She then got pregnant with son Ashley, now 19. Chloe, 18, Amiee, 16, and Bradley, 15, followed.
She said: “My marriage was all a bit of a rebound relationship. The whole time we were together, I couldn’t stop thinking of Scott.
“There were a couple of times when I found myself searching the electoral roll for his name and address but I could never find him. I told myself I was crazy and it wasn’t meant to be. “But every time I heard I Swear my stomach would flip over and I’d get butterflies thinking of Scott.” “We’d both said we thought the lyrics were so beautiful. They seemed to describe how I felt about Scott perfectly. “Now we’d lost touch I realised I’d have done anything to be at his side. I wondered what he looked like these days. Was he married with children like I was? And did he ever think of me?” Nicky’s marriage soon collapsed and her divorce was finalised in 2002. Other boyfriends followed, but none came close to Scott, including the father of her youngest two children, Michael, now nine and Emma, eight. Nicky did not give up her hunt for Scott, looking up the phone book online, trying MSN messenger and Facebook. She even hunted unsuccessfully for the name of a cousin he’d been with in Spain. Every few weeks she would log into Facebook to see if Scott had created an account. Then, in 2015, his profile popped up. He was still living in Kidderminster and was spoken