Camilla was working for an estate agent when she decided she wanted something different from life. “I planned to go back to university and study law,” she says. In March 2017, she was living with her dad in Ealing, west London, while she prepared to start her studies. “I was single and wanted to settle down but I’d been on some really bad dates.”
When a friend suggested a blind date with one of her boyfriend’s colleagues, she decided to give it a go. “The dating apps weren’t working so I agreed to a double date with my friend, her boyfriend and someone he knew.”
But when Camilla’s date cancelled, her friend was reluctant to rearrange the event. “I didn’t know at the time but her boyfriend asked another of his colleagues to join us instead,” she says. He ended up asking Chris, who was working in sales for the same tech firm. “I’d been away in Ireland the year before and I was using apps to meet people, but not very successfully,” he says. “My colleague told me that I was going on a double date that night – he didn’t tell me anything about Camilla, just that it was going to be great. I figured that, worst case scenario, I’d make a new friend.”
The four of them went to a pub in Hammersmith. “At the time, Cam had an Instagram account reviewing burgers,” Chris says. “I knew nothing about this girl apart from the fact we were meeting outside Five Guys so she could eat a burger before we went to the pub. As soon as I saw her, I thought she was so pretty.”
When Camilla was introduced to Chris, she initially thought he wasn’t her type. However, as soon as they started talking, there was an attraction. “I really liked him and the more we talked it just got stronger.” They discovered they’d both worked for the same estate agent in the past, even attending some of the same parties without meeting.
Chris was immediately smitten. “I couldn’t tell if she liked me but that made me really intrigued,” he says. “She seemed really smart and driven.”
During the date, the four friends arranged to go to a Craig David concert in Coventry a week later. “Before that, we went for another date on our own,” says Chris. He describes their weekend away to see the gig as “a whirlwind”. “It was non-stop fun and from there it just snowballed into a relationship where we were hanging out all the time and meeting each other’s families.”
In September that year, Camilla returned to university to complete her law degree and the pair moved into Chris’s flat in Clapham two years later. “We were ridiculously excited about living together,” she says. “We couldn’t do as many nice things while I was a student, like holidays, but once I started as a trainee solicitor it meant we could do more again.”
They married in August 2021 with a small ceremony in London, followed by a party in Poland, where Camilla’s family is from. Their son was also born at the end of 2021, and they bought a home in Kingston the following year.
Chris says they share a passion for good food and music. “We love going to nice restaurants and enjoy drinking together. We fully integrated into each other’s friendship groups and have always spent a lot of time with friends.”
Camilla appreciates the support she gets from her partner. “When I went back to university, he was always there when I felt like it was too much. I love how smart he is and, if I’m ever grumpy, I know he’ll lift me up. He’s also an amazing husband and father.”
