A couple of childhood sweethearts who broke up when they were 18 have reunited after 26 years apart.
Vikki Taylor, from Mirfield in West Yorkshire, was “absolutely devastated” when her school boyfriend Cam, then 18, called quits on their relationship.
“It was just silly things like him wanting to go out with his friends - like you do when you’re 17, 18 years old,” Vikki, now 49, told The Mirror.
“I was the one who played Gloria Estefan on replay for three weeks non-stop.”
After six months of living without Cam, Vikki’s heartbreak still hadn’t healed, so she called her lost love and asked if they could try again.
She recalled: “I asked if we could get back together and he said ‘I’ve got something to tell you’.
“It turned out he’d been seeing a girl and she’d got pregnant. He told me they were keeping it.”
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Realising there was no hope of reconciliation, Vikki tried her best to move on.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be anything because he had a young child,” she said.
Over the years, the pair bumped into each other occasionally on nights out, but didn’t stay in touch.
When she was 22, Vikki met a new partner of her own, married and had a daughter. But while she loved her husband, she admits Cam was always in the back of her mind.
Sadly, when their daughter was two and a half years old, Vikki and her husband separated and divorced.
Now 29, Vikki went out to a pub one night and, for the first time in 10 years, bumped into Cam.
“I was just getting divorced and I thought it was a sign,” she said. But the perfect reunion wasn’t meant to be.
“It turned out he was on his stag do - Cam was getting married.”
The pair didn’t speak that night, and went several more years without seeing each other, despite only living four miles apart.
In the years that followed, Vikki went on to marry again and had two more children.
But sadly, the marriage broke down, and she and her husband began talking about divorce.
Then one night, towards the end of the marriage in 2015, Vikki and her then husband went on a night out in Leeds - where Vikki saw someone she recognised.
“I walked into the pub and saw Paul, who was Cam’s best mate when we were kids,” she recalled.
As she chatted to Paul and his partner, memories of her own lost love came flooding back.
“Paul asked me if I’d seen Cam lately, and I hadn’t. But when I got home at about 1.30am I messaged him on Facebook to say I’d bumped into Paul.
“I didn’t expect to get anything back, but literally within a minute he replied,” Vikki said.
After chatting, it turned out Cam’s marriage had also broken down, so the pair arranged to meet for a coffee later that week.
“My heart pounded and I had butterflies in my stomach when I saw him. It was exactly the same as it had been all those years ago,” Vikki said.
“Within a week, we decided that we both still loved each other and we moved in together.”
Just like that, the pair slotted back into each other’s lives. According to Vikki, even introducing the kids to each other went smoothly.
And she claims her parents were over the moon to see their daughter reunited with her childhood sweetheart.
“They were upset I was getting divorced, but my dad, who was ill at the time, said, ‘I can die a happy man now’.
“Everyone knew [Cam] was the one I wanted to be with. It was the best, weirdest, most amazing feeling ever.”
After finally reuniting and buying a house together, Vikki and Cam talked about getting married.
The pair, who are huge Billy Idol fans, decided to book a trip to Las Vegas to see him play, and three months before they were due to fly, they had an idea.
Vikki recalled: “We said, ‘we should just get married in Vegas’.”
She enquired online with The Wedding Travel Company to plan her special day with Cam at a little chapel in Las Vegas, and the company sorted all the details out for her.
“I didn’t want any hassle and they were the only company where you could book virtually everything online,” she said.
It was just Vikki and Cam at the ceremony, along with a man who doubled up as an entertainer and a witness to the marriage.
Finally, in 2019, after nearly three decades of back-and-forth, Vikki and Cam were husband and wife.
“It was the best day ever,” she said.
While they spent their first year of married life in bliss, the couple went through a rocky patch last year when Vikki was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“We always joke that we got married in 2019 and then we had the pandemic and I got ill, and it’s been the worst two years ever, but we have a sense of humour about it,” she said.
While Vikki went through gruelling cancer treatmetn, Cam supported her, keeping a smile on her face.
Thankfully, Vikki has now been cancer-free for nearly a year, and she’s positive for the future.
Reflecting on her rollercoaster ride with Cam, she jokes the pair can’t agree on how they broke up all those years ago.
Did you reunite with your old flame? Send your stories to jessica.taylor@reachplc.com
“Cam says it was me who broke up with him, but that’s not how I remember it,” she laughed.
“I look back and think I’ve got three beautiful kids, and although [Cam and I] spent 26 years apart, hopefully we’ve got 26 more together.”
