Are US-UK relationships common?

Hi everyone,

I'm new (thanks for having me!), living here in the US. I met someone online in the UK, and we've been best friends for more than 4 years. Only recently have we really discussed getting serious and taking our friendship to the next level, and we plan to meet mid-2009.

My question is ... Is this OK? Sometimes I feel weird that I have a girlfriend that lives very far away, that I haven't even met yet. It's something I refrain from telling my family, as well. I saw some other posts where people have met online and ended up together. Would anyone be willing to share their stories?

Thanks!

Jay

Welcome to the forum!  According to this thread:

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=6513.0

Close to 50% of the people who voted in the poll met their Significant Others online.  So you're definitely not alone!  There are loads of us.  That thread has a lot of stories.

Thank you so much! I'm still exploring the site, so it would have probably taken me ages to find that forum.

hi jkateel,

They're certainly more common than you would think!  Like Ms Robinson said, these days a lot of US-UK couples met online initally (including me and my husband!)  So you are most definitely not alone and I wouldn't consider it weird or strange as long as you actually do meet up eventually!

edit:  You can find my full story in that thread Mrs Robinson linked to, but suffice it to say we realised we had major feelings for each other while we only knew each other online (like you, I felt a bit strange about it at the time, but all that dissapated once we met!) and got married exactly two years to the day after we first met each other in person.

My husband and I met as email penpals (purely platonic until we met in person while I was over here on vacation), and we'll be celebrating our 10th anniversary in 2009 and expecting our first child in January.  So not only is it okay (although occasionally a bit awkward and complicated when they ask how you met), but it can work really, really well.  How you meet is not important.  It's WHO you meet. 

Like most people here who've been through it, I will advise you that the long-distance aspect hurts like hell.  It's why I got married at the tender age of 19 instead of waiting until a more conventional stage of maturity - after 2 years of long-distance relationship, it was make or break time.   Wouldn't have worked for everyone (most 19 year-olds don't necessarily know what they want or who they want in life yet), but I've always been a little odd!

Best of luck to both of you. 

Hey there!
I met my hubby online, and we knew we had feelings for each other long before meeting in person.  In fact, I loved that we got to know each other so well before we were able to have a physical relationship, it made it a lot more special.  There are ways to make a long distance relationship easier these days, we used webcams every day and although we still missed each other like crazy, it made spending months apart much easier. 
Good luck with everything (oh, and my full story is on that thread you have the link to, as well!)

Add me to the list as well! My husband and I met online when we were both just 17, and became pen pals. We wrote letters for two years before we finally met in person and became a proper couple. Although it was hard, it was also so rewarding because we really got to know each other through those letters, emails, phone calls, chats that, I think, a lot of people miss out on when they meet in a bar, etc. Eight years after we first met online, we got married and, like EllieJean (waves to EllieJean), we're also expecting our first child in January. It's certainly not easy, but it CAN work if you want it to. Good luck!

I'm on this list as well.  My fiance and I met through a friend of ours on MySpace.  Our mutual friend I had met about 4 years ago on a message board that we run about The Beatles.  So she and I both had MySpace.

Well, my fiance was friends on MySpace with our mutual friend's best friend, he saw me, thought I was "cool and cute", so he added me.  Now we're getting married in March.

Heh. The stupid thing is, I felt comfortable getting in touch with my (now) partner online, because he lived way, way away in Britain and couldn't *possibly* think I was flirting with him...on account of, that would be silly.

Now here I am sitting in a farmhouse in Sussex surrounded by sheep.

Seriously, WTF?!

Now here I am sitting in a farmhouse in Sussex surrounded by sheep.

Are the sheep surrounding you inside (seriously WTF?!), or outside of the house?

I knew my partner on-line for about 6 months to actually meeting, I was working in Ireland and he was going to school in London.  We met twice and I ended up back in the States after that.  It was 9 months before we met again and after that point, we considered ourselves a couple.  It took 5 years for us to sort out our lives and for me to move over and two years ago we formed our Civil Partnership.

Common or not, sheep or not, it isn't abnormal in the least!

Well, they're outside NOW. But what is my kitchen now was apparently the stable in this house several years ago. (I'm kind of missing my front garden sheep. I like to watch them while I do the washing up, but they're gentlemen sheep and they're...on duty until March).

Anyhow, my pathetic timeline is: met online in '95, met in person in '97 and, through a series of stupid grownup hurdles and difficulties, didn't actually arrive on a fiancee visa until a month ago.

Yup. Eleven years since I said "Yeah, okay, let's." Yeesh!

Heh. The stupid thing is, I felt comfortable getting in touch with my (now) partner online, because he lived way, way away in Britain and couldn't *possibly* think I was flirting with him...on account of, that would be silly.

Now here I am sitting in a farmhouse in Sussex surrounded by sheep.

Seriously, WTF?!

LOL.... I still feel this way when I see herds of sheep crossing the road here... 
Once in a while, I look around in disbelief and saw "where am I???"   

Well, they're outside NOW. But what is my kitchen now was apparently the stable in this house several years ago. (I'm kind of missing my front garden sheep. I like to watch them while I do the washing up, but they're gentlemen sheep and they're...on duty until March).

Anyhow, my pathetic timeline is: met online in '95, met in person in '97 and, through a series of stupid grownup hurdles and difficulties, didn't actually arrive on a fiancee visa until a month ago.

Yup. Eleven years since I said "Yeah, okay, let's." Yeesh!

I want sheep!  You lucky thing.  We had dairy cows and calves in our back meadow, but they've gone away to greener pastures for the winter.  Must...not...see...livestock...as...replacement.. .for...pets.....

Well I just celebrated my 10th wedding anniversary in June and yep you guessed I met my wonderful hubby in a chatroom in March of 1997!!!!

It does work and it is GREAT!