I fell for bloke 5,000 miles away – but feared he’d dump me over secret struggle when we met on UK’s 90 Day Fiancé
HOW far would you go for love? For fed-up singleton Kadie, the answer was over 5,000 miles.
After coming out of a long-term relationship and growing tired of "boring" Tinder, the Yorkshire nurse, 26, decided to try her luck further afield, signing up for an international dating site.
It was here that she came across Mexican hunk Alejandro, and following just a month of chatting over Facetime, they decided to risk it all - meeting for the first time in front of cameras for a TV show.
In a move Kadie's friends have described as "bonkers", the couple signed up to the , the hit American dating series which gives long-distance lovers the chance to discover whether their relationship is the real deal or not.
And when Alejandro finally landed in December to film the show, they wasted no time in getting down to the serious business of love.
“When we met for the first time, it was about an hour or so when we told each other we were in love,” says Kadie. “To finally be in each other’s arms was the best feeling ever. I will never forget it.”
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'I feared being dumped over weight'
The new show, which begins on Discovery Plus on Sunday, sees eight couples meet for the first time in person after falling for each other online during the pandemic.
Living 24/7, the loved-up Brits and their foreign partners have 90 days to decide whether their long-distance romance can last or whether they’ve made a huge mistake.
For Kadie, who lives in Rastrick, West Yorkshire, her biggest fear was worrying that Alejandro would think she was overweight.
Originally a size 22, she had suffered from body image issues for years and decided to embark on Slimming World’s diet before she met the Mexican last year.
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After losing several stone and dropping to a size 16/18, she admits: “I did feel nervous about meeting him in person.
“Everyone compliments me (about my weight loss) but it’s hard to believe it yourself and I worried about what he would think.”
'We fell in love over FaceTime'
Kadie - who came out of a long-term relationship last year - says she grew bored of Tinder and loved the excitement of finding love with a foreign man.
Within days of uploading her profile, Alejandro contacted her and the couple started exchanging flirty messages.
She says: “I did have Tinder but it was boring. There was no excitement. I uploaded my photos on an international cupid dating site and he messaged me. We just clicked.”
“I had been single for a while and I decided to look for a girl internationally,” adds Alejandro. “When I noticed Kadie’s profile, we started chatting. I found her cute and we had lots in common.”
A month after their first exchange, the smitten pair, who chatted over FaceTime, found themselves falling in love even though the pandemic meant they could not meet up in person.
“After a month of talking, Alejandro messaged me to say he thought he was falling in love with me,” says Kadie. “But we both had a strict rule that we wanted to wait until we met in person to say this. It got harder and harder though at the end of calls.”
Desperate to meet when the strict Covid rules started to ease, the opportunity to get together on 90 Day Fiancé was one the couple couldn’t resist.
“We had been talking for about four months when I spotted the advert for the 90 Day TV series,” says Kadie. “I am such a huge fan of the American version that I wanted to apply.
“We hadn’t been able to meet up because of the pandemic but with or without the show, we knew we wanted to.”
To their amazement, the couple were selected to take part and a delighted Kadie confesses they felt it was their chance to “share our journey with the rest of the world”.
Everyone thinks we're bonkers'
“There are a lot of reasons why this might not work,” she admits.
“The cultural differences, time zones. The whole relationship is totally crazy and everyone thinks we are totally bonkers. But no one else matters to us.”
“Long distance is hard,” adds Alejandro. “But we only care about our opinions.”
As well as being introduced to Kadie’s nan at home in Yorkshire, the couple visited London on a sight-seeing trip during the show.
“It was so much better seeing each other in the flesh,” says Kadie, smiling. “Every day we got closer and closer. We felt more in love as each day passed.
“Alejandro is a copy of me. We are so alike. He is so kind, has the biggest heart and he is my safe place.”
“I find Kadie amazing,” gushes Alejandro. “I have dated Mexican girls before but it’s different with Kadie. She treats me nicely and everything about her makes me think I really like her.”
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But as the pair go on to confess, the English weather proved to be a big headache they hadn’t envisaged.
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“Weather is the biggest difference for us,” admits Alejandro. “We have nice weather almost all year (in Mexico). My first experience in England was very cold and it was raining all the time.”
90 Day Fiancé UK will be available to stream exclusively from Sunday 24th July on Discovery+
