real life

A love story so strange and beautiful it's hard to believe it's true.

 

 

 

By LEE CONE

This story is so bittersweet, it’s hard to believe it’s real.

You might remember New Zealand woman Rachel Anderson and her first husband, Kristian. Because he once made her the most beautiful video, it went viral, and ended up on Oprah.

Here it is:

This heart-wrenching video gained nearly 800,000 views —  and the love story behind it caught Oprah’s attention while she was here on her Australian tour.

Rachel and her husband Kristian with Oprah. (Screenshot via Oprah’s Where are They Now?)

Oprah surprised the couple and the show’s viewers by giving the couple a cheque for $250,000 live on air, to allow the family to spend time together as a family on a trip to the US.

When Kristian lost his battle with cancer, a devastated Rachel battled to face the day without him — described the experience as “like living in a black hole”.

“I remember waking up the first morning after he died … seeing his wardrobe open and his clothes all there,” she told Oprah. “Just realising that was it. That was all that we had left. He was gone.”

But Rachel, a woman who had supported her husband through his diagnosis and his debilitating treatments, had found love again in the most surprising way.

ADVERTISEMENT

Dairy farmer Richard Evans saw Rachel on New Zealand television when she was in the country promoting, as Oprah’s Where Are They Now revealed this week.

And this is where things get really lovely.

Rachel appeared on New Zealand television to promote a book she had published from Kristian’s blog — and Richard Evans, a dairy farmer from New Zealand’s south island, saw her on the show and knew he needed to get in contact with her.

He sent a letter to her church in Australia, which was forwarded to her. The next time she was in New Zealand, he flew to Auckland just to take her out for dinner.

“He turned out to be the most incredible man,” Rachel told Oprah on the show.

The pair fell in love — and married in January this year.

Rachel and Richard’s wedding. Photo via Facebook. 

“He has a daughter that’s in between the ages of my children, so between us, we have a five-year-old, a six-year-old and a seven-year-old,” Rachel told Oprah.

What’s that water stuff coming out of our eyes?

Tags: