Woman flies from Australia to US for first date after falling for podcast host
A woman flew over 22 hours from Australia to Florida for a first date after falling in love with a podcast host.
Jemma Gregory, who was in her 20s, was a student studying in Brisbane, Australia, looking for some LGBTQ+ inspiration on her "old school" iPod in 2006.
She typed in "lesbian" at the iTunes search bar when she suddenly stumbled upon Denise Warner’s podcast.
"Their show was one of the first ones at the top. So I listened – and it was funny and just really relatable”, Jemma told CNN.
The podcast became a regular listen and she would always listen right until the end.
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The happy couple married in 2010 (CNN)Towards the end of the show, Denise and her co-host, from their flat in Florida, suggested listeners call in or email with any LGBT+ questions they had.
Jemma emailed the host, who was in her late 30s, to tell her she was a huge fan of the show and provided some topics.
The newbie host was delighted she had a listener who was engaged with her podcast albeit thousands of miles away.
Denise told CNN: "We just wanted to share our girls’ night with the world and spotlight LGBT+ projects. That was our goal.”
The host was attracting listeners, however, they weren't the types of people she was aiming to attract.
She revealed: “We would say the phone number and then we would get all these awful call-ins that were men asking really dark or sexual questions, and we were like, ‘No, no, no, this is not what we want. Click, hang up on him.
"We just couldn’t get the engagement that we wanted.”
That was until Jemma emailed in, she wrote: "I found your podcast. I love it. I’m listening all the way from Brisbane, Australia.”
Soon after, Jemma was involved in the podcast and they struck up an incredible friendship.
She revealed: "We had, for a solid two years, just back and forth weekly email exchanges.
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"It wasn’t just the questions, it was, ‘This is what’s going on in my life’ – girlfriends at the time, and going out and having fun. So we built up a friendship for a few years before anything else, which was nice.”
Jemma soon took up a teaching role, which gave her longer summer holidays, when she decided to visit the US along with a friend.
She wrote Denise an email and the pair agreed to meet in Miami. However, things got off to a rocky start as Denise couldn't even look Jemma in the eye.
She revealed: “I turned up and she – having had this wonderful online friendship – wouldn’t even give me eye contact."
But Denise put this down to shyness and also releasing she had feelings for her.
But despite the huge distance, the age gap, the podcast host thought it would never work but the pair went shopping one day and started to hold hands.
It was the start of their blossoming relationship.
Jemma had to head back to Australia but over the years the pair kept in contact and she would fly over to the US twice a year to visit.
Listeners would even help contribute to the flights as they talked about their relationship on air.
But things didn't progress until New Year’s Eve 2009 when Jemma was offered a job to England.
She decided to move to be closer to Denise for their relationship - with the flight times drastically slashed from 22 hours to 8.
And just a year later the pair got married in Canada after settling on a place for their families to meet.
It was the perfect day as Denise admitted: "We even had a rainbow.” “Couldn’t ask for more,” said Jemma. “It was perfect.”
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