I met my wife when she was a baby and I was 19

Rich Foetu Tomkinson, 48, and Evie Boucher-Locke, 29, fell in love over a few drinks at their local bar, but the two didn’t realize they had met before — when Evie was an infant.

The UK couple met at a bar when Rich was serving Evie some drinks and the two instantly fell for one another.

They met in July 2018, were officially a couple in October and moved in with each other the next February.

As the two quickly fell in love, they discovered that they had met before when Evie introduced Rich to her mother, Sarah Owen.

When Rich and Sarah were introduced, they remembered that they had worked on the same street in the ’90s. Rich realized that he had seen Evie as a baby being pushed around in her stroller by her mother.

“It was a bit freaky when I realized I’d met Evie as a baby, but I had no idea at the time,” Rich said. “We just laugh about it. Age is just a number to us, and you can’t help who you fall in love with.”

The pair have been mistaken as father and daughter due to their nearly 20 year age difference, but they don’t mind.

“I’ve been mistaken for Evie’s dad before, but most people can see how well we click. The 19 year age gap doesn’t bother us at all,” Rich explained.

Evie said that she was attracted to Rich’s warm personality the moment they met and instantly fell in love. “We really hit it off. I invited her to get involved with a big charity event I was doing so we could keep in touch,” he said.

When Evie went on vacation, Rich fully accepted how hard he had fallen when he came to terms with how much he missed her. The two acknowledged their deep feelings for each other when Evie returned and have been inseparable since.

Rich was heartbroken to learn that his dad was diagnosed with cancer in October 2018. He sadly passed away during Christmas, but thankfully Evie was there to help Rich though the difficult time which helped to solidify what Rich already knew — Evie was the one.

He knew he needed the moment to be extra special and proposed in front of a large crowd of 1,000 people at their local theater, during a showing of a documentary at a charity event he had put on in March 2019.

“I didn’t hesitate to say yes,” Evie said.

After a little over a year of dating, the lovestruck couple were engaged and are now expecting their first child, but their wedding didn’t go as smoothly as they hoped.

The pair had planned to get married in June 2021 but were forced to move the date back due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They had paid to have their wedding at Somerford Hall in Brewood, but made the tough decision to cancel the event all together after they each lost a parent in the space of six weeks, Rich’s mother and Evie’s father.

“We had a chat and Evie decided that it was not going to be the wedding she wanted because she could not imagine walking down the aisle without her dad. There was so much sadness,” Rich said.

“Before we realized that the insurance would pay out our first thought was that we’d lost all our money and wouldn’t be able to get married. I can’t tell you how stressful it was. We were devastated. It made it a lot harder to grieve and you shouldn’t have to feel that worry.”

The couple fought with the wedding venue to get their money back but eventually were reimbursed by their insurance and married later, at a more intimate ceremony followed by a party with 200 guests.

“Marrying Evie was the best day of my life and I’m so excited to have a baby with her,” Rich said.

“We had a wedding dance-off and so much fun. It was the best day,” he recounted. “Our family and friends can see how happy we are. At the beginning I don’t think anyone expected we would last – even us – but now we’re happily married and expecting a little one.”

Evie believes that Rich will be an amazing hands-on father and is excited to start a family with the man of her dreams, even if people might mistake him for a grandfather.

“We’ve already thought about people thinking I’m the grandad rather than the dad at sports days and things like that.”

“We’ll just laugh it off.”