- My next guests were strangers destined to be together.
Eight years they crossed each other's paths
'til fate finally brought them together and they met online.
This is so crazy.
Well, they've been happily married now for 14 years.
(audience clapping)
Please welcome Chris and Kristen.
Tell us how you connected online.
- So I was divorced in 2001, so I was a single mom.
Dating online had really just started
and a friend of mine and I,
we thought we'd start our own dating website
and so we were doing research
and in order for me to do the research, I had a profile
and I saw his profile, but
I thought way too cute, just a player really.
So I kind of just--
- Oh, you ain't want the pretty boy?
- [Kristen] No, I did not. (laughs)
- So I had been, I was single, I've always been single.
My close friend, Nicki, felt like I needed to find someone,
so she had set up a profile for me without telling me
and then came to me after the fact
and she convinced me to try it for six months.
I saw her picture and I was just stunned by it.
I sent her messages, never heard back from her.
- And I wasn't a member, so I couldn't send a message back,
but I just, again, he just looked like a player
and I wasn't going to have any part of that.
- He looked like a player?
- He did.
- Kristen, what made you change
your mind about Chris though?
- So I had a friend, Stewart, who was a photographer.
One day I was going to his studio to meet him for lunch
and I walked up into his studio and there was that picture.
I was stunned and I said, "Stewart, who is this guy?
"He's been on my Yahoo profile
"and I've been blowing him off.
"Who is he?"
And Stewart was just like,
"He's a friend of mine from high school,
"great guy, bachelor."
I'm like, "So he's not married,
"he's not involved, he's not anything?"
He's like, " No, no, no, he's a great guy."
And he had, Chris had sent me a message on the Yahoo thing
saying, "You're out of my league, but I love your smile.
"I'm just a small town guy from Maine."
- Come on player, yeah.
(audience laughing)
All this is grown man stuff today.
Today's show is grown man love.
(audience clapping)
You're out of my league.
God Lord, but I love your smile.
- So I ran home, I paid the fee to get online.
(audience laughing)
So that I could send him a message and say,
"You have to call me."
I sent him my address, my social security number,
my everything.
My phone numbers, everything.
I said, "Please call me.
"We have so much in common, I need to talk to you."
- The story is that you all had crossed paths
several times before you actually met.
- [Kristen] That's right.
- How'd you figure that part out?
- So in the time that we started talking,
we just realized how many times
we were supposed to have met.
I had left a job years prior,
probably about eight years before, and he took my position,
so he filled my position when I left, but I never met him.
And then I was working at a radio station
and a friend of mine tried to set me up on a blind date
and I was like, "No way."
It was him.
(audience gasps)
- Man. (audience clapping)
So your relationship progressed quickly, right?
- Yes, so at the time we met, I was in the Army Reserves
and two weeks after we met, I got a notice
that I was getting deployed to Afghanistan
and I knew when we met that day for coffee
that I wanted to marry her
and I just turned to her one day,
I didn't have a ring, I didn't have anything planned,
and I asked her to marry me.
- And I said yes. (audience clapping)
So we got married and then a year later
we renewed our vows and had our big wedding.
- [Steve] A wedding, a ceremony.
- [Kristen] Yes.
- Wow.
(audience clapping)
And you all haven't gone on a honeymoon?
- No. - No.
She had a four year old son when we met
and then immediately after that we had two more kids,
so have a 14-year old daughter, Mackenzie,
and my son Tyler will turn 13.
- Wow. - And two dogs.
(audience clapping)
- That's pretty good man.
This is such a great love story, man.
I think that all great love stories
deserve some type of celebration.
That's why our friends over at Dream Vacations
are going to be sending you guys
on a seven night Caribbean cruise
(audience cheering)
on board the Celebrity Equinox.
- What?
- You're going to experience luxurious accommodations
and a balcony state room, premium amenities
including 10 exceptional dining venues
like the gastrobar and Celebrities unrivaled guest services.
Thank y'all for sharing your story.
Have a nice time, man.
- Thank you so much. - Yeah man.
Have a great time.
- My eyelashes.
Thank you. - That'll be really nice.
Y'all have a good time, man.
It's a great vacation.