A love-struck couple – who shared their first kiss aged five – have rekindled their romance after 36 years apart. Emma Louise Keyworth, 43, first met her now fiancée Duncan Broomfield, 43, in 1982, after starting at the same primary school.
The contact centre manager lost contact with Duncan but 36 years and five children later – the childhood sweethearts ‘bumped’ into one another at a local supermarket. The couple, from Milford-On-Sea, Hampshire, have been inseparable ever since – and they even got engaged in October [2019]. Mum-of-three Emma says, “My perfect man was in my life all along. I didn't completely realise until I was 41.
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“I remember making daisy chains together on the school field when we were five - Duncan lent round to kiss me. I blushed and gave him one back! He was the first boy I had ever kissed, and when I was 11 years old, I kissed him again," she shares.
“We were close throughout our time at school, and we always attended one another’s birthday parties. I will never forget Duncan wearing shorts and his husky voice which has since disappeared. On our first date I said to him ‘you’ve gone all posh.’ After secondary school, we both went on to have our own families. During this time; however, I always knew Duncan was still local with his family as our daughters Holly and Ellie, both 25, were good friends at school."
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The couple rekindled their childhood romance after first speaking to one another online. “I felt quite taken aback when he messaged me on Facebook the first time. I didn't realise he would still think of me in that way. Duncan had become single and unbeknown to him; I was also single."
Emma had been divorced for three years, and Duncan's divorce was finalised just a few weeks before they saw each other.
“We had so much to talk about as we hadn't had a proper conversation for years, and I had forgotten how funny he was. “I just felt kind of warm and content when we chatted, and after a few weeks – we went on our first date," Emma says.
“We are meant to be, and it seems like it may always have been — there have been too many synchronicities along the way," says Duncan, who works in operations. "I can’t wait to make her my wife.”
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