David and Tracey sold their story to the Mirror and Woman magazine.

The Mirror

 

'We fell in our love when our partners had an affair.'

David Flannigan got in touch with us saying 'How do my wife and I sell our story'. David and his wife Tracey met when their previous partners had an affair with each other, and are now married with a family of their own.

Tracey and David also sold their story to Woman magazine (below) and went onto This Morning. Thanks to their amazing and unusual love story, they are now in talks for a book deal too.

 

 

 

 

 

Do you have a relationship or love story you would like to sell to a women's magazine or newspaper? To sell your story, contact us now. Fill in our story submission form on the right, or call us direct....

 

 

 

 

 

Your Life: We fell in love.. when our partners had an affair

 

When Tracey Buckley's husband had a fling, she was devastated. She never expected it to lead her to the love of her life

 

By Boudicca Fox-Leonard

 

As Tracey Buckley made a phone call to confront the woman she feared was sleeping with her husband, the last thing she expected to find was a new man.

It all started when she found a flirty text message on her husbandTony's mobile.

She'd called the number and the woman on the other end of the linesaid that Tony was going to leave Tracey and move in with her.

But when Tracey confronted Tony, he denied it.

So, believing that the woman - Sarah - was attempting to steal her husband, Tracey decided to have it out with her.

She took a deep breath and prepared for a row. Instead, a man answered the phone. She soon discovered that the man on the phone was Sarah's fiance David Flanagan, and that the affair she had been assured had never happened was still going on.

Primary school teacher Tracey, 35, from Birmingham, says: "David told me Sarah had confessed to the affair two days earlier and said their relationship had gone on for five months.

"David was as confused, hurt and desperate for answers as I was. So we swapped numbers and stayed in touch as we unravelled more details of the affair."

David, 37, a plasterer, from Solihull, had been with Sarah for eight years and they were due to marry just two weeks after that first phone call.

Meanwhile, Tracey and Tony, 38, childhood sweethearts who had married two years earlier, were undergoing fertility treatment in a bid to have a baby.

In 2001, a year before their wedding, Tracey was diagnosed with cervical cancer.

Luckily the cancerous cells were removed but doctors said she should have children soon as she'd probably need a hysterectomy within a few years.

So, in 2004 the couple started fertility treatment. But a few months later she noticed Tony was acting strangely.

One night he went to a work party and didn't return home until thenext morning.

That's when she found the flirty text message, the truth came out.

"I nearly fainted when she told me she was in love with Tony."

But Tony denied it, saying Sarah was a colleague who had become a close friend. So Tracey decided to call the woman again and tell her to stay away from Tony. That was when she first spoke to David...

"When I put the phone down I couldn't stop crying as it sunk in how much Tony had betrayed me.

"At the same time, a small part of me had felt comforted by talking to David," she recalls.

"I'd found someone to share my despair with."

Both couples agreed not to split up and to see if they could save their relationships.

In the meantime David and Sarah cancelled their wedding.

Tracey says: "Whenever he went out, I could not help but call David to check if Sarah had gone out too."

Over the next two months, despite never having met, Tracey and David spoke every day.

"Talking to David was really soothing," she says. "Over time our conversations became less about Tony and Sarah as we just enjoyed talking to each other."

It wasn't until August, when her sister whisked her off to Kefalonia to escape the tension at home, that Tracey realised she and Tony probably did not have a future together.

She says: "I realised all I wanted was children and a husband who adored me, and that I would never have it with Tony because the trusthad gone and I knew I'd never be able to change him.

"I felt as though I'd lost everything."

After a few cocktails she sent David a text. "I said I was going to talk to the gorgeous hotel barman and he texted back 'go for it girl!'," she says.

"As the week went on I stopped flirting with blokes as I realised it was David I was attracted to."

When she got back to Birmingham, Tony told her that he and Sarah had been on a romantic break to Bath while she was away.

"It was horrible realising he hadn't even missed me at all, it drove home that our relationship was over," she says.

A week later Tracey decided to meet David, whose relationship was also obviously in tatters, for the first time.

"My instincts told me I could trust him and more than anything, I wanted to put a face to the voice that had comforted me. "And the physical attraction between us was instant. We chatted away all night, and ended up kissing as we left the restaurant.

"I was still married but with my relationship over, I felt like I was single again.

Although it was a weird way to meet, I had a feeling inside that David was going to be a very special person in my life."

In September 2004 Tony and Sarah moved in together, and announced they were expecting a baby a month later.

"When I found out Sarah was pregnant, I was distraught," says Tracey. "I felt as if she had taken my husband and my family. At the sametime, I couldn't deny my own feelings for David."

And it was at a Coldplay concert some time later that Tracey realised how strong her feelings were.

Tracey says: "I was having such a happy night with David, it was then I realised how special he was and that I loved him. By the end ofsummer 2006, I felt I had been given a second chance."

Tracey and David moved in together and after five months she got pregnant. But tragically, baby Thomas died after being born 10 weeks prematurely. Tracey says:

"Together we got through the grief and it confirmed again how we felt each other."

On Christmas Day David proposed, and they began to try for anotherchild. Tracey discovered she was pregnant five days before they married in July 2007. We announced the news at the wedding reception and the roar from the guests was deafening, everyone knew what we'd been through and they were really happy for us," says Tracey. She was terrified when baby Neve was born by caesarean 10 weeks early, like Thomas, but after six weeks in a neo-natal unit, the couple were allowed to take her home.

Tracey is pregnant again and is due to give birth in December.

"I've ended up with the husband and family that I always wanted," says Tracey.

"Tony's affair with Sarah was the bleakest time. I felt as if my whole world had been destroyed. But I would go through the tears and heartbreak again just to be able to meet David and to have the happy ending we have now."

 

Tony says:

"Tracey and I had known each other since we were kids but I think the reality over the two years we were married was that we weren't compatible.

"I did have an affair and it was happening for about five months before Tracey found out. It was all very emotional. Sarah and I moved into a flat together at the end of September 2004."