A woman divorced her husband less than two years after getting married and fell in love with her wedding DJ shortly afterwards.
Megan Willis, 26, from Maryland, had been married for around a year when she started to feel unhappy because her husband didn’t give her ‘what she needed’ and began to confide in 49-year-old Mark Stone – the DJ at her wedding.
Despite the 23-year age gap, Megan soon began to develop feelings for the DJ, saying he led her to realise she shouldn’t have to ‘beg’ her ‘video game addict’ husband for attention.
Megan, a nanny and sales consultant, first met business analyst and DJ Mark in November 2015 when her sister, Kristen, introduced them at a local restaurant he was working at.
The pair got talking and from then on, every time Megan visited her sister they would go to the restaurant – the Cray Tuna – and chat to the DJ. ‘He was such a people person, so much fun and we loved to goof off with him,’ the 26-year-old explained.
Just a few months later in July 2016, Megan got married to her now ex-husband and her sister hired Mark to DJ at the reception. However, one year down the line cracks started to appear in the marriage, with Megan feeling unhappy and neglected in her relationship.
She said she came to feel ‘non-existent’ because her ex was ‘addicted to a video game that basically became his life’, and only spent time with her when she would be watching TV and he would be sat playing his game with his headphones on.
After visiting her sister, they went back to the same restaurant where Mark was a DJ and she found herself opening up to him about the problems in her marriage.
Megan explained:
About a year later I’m home visiting and we go to the Crazy Tuna, Mark is there and we talk about my marriage and how I’m not happy in it. After that night that conversation continued because Mark was having some similar issues in his marriage of 27 years. So we started chatting daily.
Talking with Mark really led me to the realisation that I shouldn’t have to beg my husband for attention. Mark was just a friend yet everyday he took time to check in on me. We both really enjoyed our chats no matter how silly or serious they were.
Megan said Mark was there to support her through the hard times, and would calm her down and remind her ‘it would all be okay’ whenever she got into an argument with her ex. This support continued when Megan filed for divorce, which was finalised in January 2018.
Mark quickly followed suit, with his divorce finalised just eight months later, and the pair moved to be near each other as they had by this point fallen in love – with Megan saying she realised she was in love with him first, but she couldn’t act on anything while Mark was still married.
Initially, Megan had doubts as to whether their relationship could work due to their 23-year age gap, stating: ‘At first I had the “oh god are you falling for him?” thought, and after that it was, “can this even work?” and then, “will people think I’m some gold digger?”‘
However, the more time the pair spent together, the less doubtful Megan became and soon they became official. Both Mark’s and Megan’s families have been accepting of their relationship and are pleased they have found happiness together.
Although Mark initially struggled to come to terms with the end of his 30-year relationship, he came to accept it, adding: ‘Once I realised my marriage was over, I opened my eyes to the love I felt for Megan’.
The 49-year-old said his siblings and children – aged 19 and 21 – at first had reservations about him even getting into a new relationship, ‘much less the age gap’, but soon realised he was happy and so ‘nothing else mattered’.
The couple, who have set up a joint social media page called @wearemarkandmegan to break the stigma surrounding age gap relationships, have vowed to never hide their love in a bid to encourage other age gap couples that they too don’t need to hide away.
They hope to be able to have children one day and have even picked out their baby names, although Mark will need to have his vasectomy reversed after having one 21 years ago.
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).