How I met my partner: Niall Boylan says he loved his wife Karen before they met in person

The broadcaster said the moment he met his now wife Karen remains deeply etched in his mind.

That was back in May of 2017 when the pair had already predicted it might be love at first sight.

Their first time meeting in person was at the Voodoo Rooms on Oliver Plunkett Street at one of Niall’s popular listener parties. It followed days of communicating through Facebook and regular five-hour phone calls. Love was already blooming from a chance encounter on Facebook in the early hours of one life-changing Saturday morning.

Karen had been working in public relations at the time when she sent a direct message to the celebrity enquiring about facilities for a musician set to feature on Classic Hits. Niall had been unable to move from where he was sitting at the time due to a bad case of sciatica.

“I was looking for painkillers but the pain meant I couldn’t get up off the couch”, Niall said. “I had my phone next to me and was wondering if I should call an ambulance.

“At that moment a message came through via Facebook. The first thing I noticed about the profile picture was these beautiful piercing blue eyes. That was probably the first thing that attracted me to Karen. She had sent the message at 2am in the morning, not thinking I would immediately answer.”

The urge to find out more about this mystery woman proved too strong for Niall. They ended up chatting online until 6am when he decided to seize the day and ask Karen for her number.

“I felt this immediate trust towards someone I’d never met in my life”, he explained.

For the days that followed Niall and Karen spoke on the phone together for five hours at a time.

“We had so much in common,” Karen said. “I told him that we had to meet.”

They decided early on that Cork should be the venue for their first meeting.

“I told her we were having a listener party in Cork on May 5 and asked her to come along.”

Karen chipped in.

“He thought it would be a good way for me to network”.

Niall explained he was extremely nervous in the moments leading up to their meeting.

“I was 54 and going through a divorce. The last time I had been on a first date was back when I was a teenager. When Karen walked in I immediately spotted her. She had the most beautiful smile I had ever seen. I thought all my birthdays had come together.”

The feeling was equally as intense for Karen.

“The disco lights were shining, showing up this beautiful smile and eyes that looked like oceans of blue. I don’t know if you can describe a man as beautiful but that’s exactly what Niall is. He is just a beautiful soul.”

Karen, who now works as a content provider and director on the Niall Boylan Podcast, described how the phone calls leading up to that night paved the way for their relationship.

“We put a lifetime into those two weeks,” she said. “Even at that point, we knew all we had to know about each other.”

Niall shared her sentiment.

“I loved Karen before I even met her. I was lucky she was available because it would have devastated me if she wasn’t.”

She recalled gushing about the broadcaster to the musician attending the party with her.

“I was sitting with my act and talking about Niall. I said to him ‘I can’t believe it. He is wonderful’. He told me that he had never before seen such chemistry between two people.”

It wasn’t long before the pair went on their first date.

“We ate out at a restaurant in Monkstown before walking half a mile to the pier in Dun Laoghaire,” Karen said. “It was very dark and the marina was lit up by stars complemented by the clearest moon you have ever seen. Niall asked me if I wanted to dance and I said yes. He took out his phone and we danced to ‘Rule the World’ by Take That. The stars were shining as we danced. It was the most gorgeous night.”

Niall laughed at the memory.

“It was a bit crackers and a bit mad but that’s how me and Karen are.”

Karen said the similarities between them are endless.

“I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone so similar to me,” she said. “It’s like there are two Niall Boylans in the relationship.”

Niall recalled proposing to Karen four times.

“In a way, it was like we were engaged from day one because I always knew I wanted to marry Karen.

“I proposed to her four times. The first was on Portmarnock beach in Dublin. The second was on a beach in Marbella and the third was on a beach in Portugal. It was more of an expression of love than anything else. I wanted to be in that moment forever.”

The pair eventually tied the knot in Glen of the Downs in Wicklow late last year.

“We got married — just the two of us,” Karen said. “It was a beautiful place and a beautiful day.”

Niall maintains that the key to a healthy relationship is communication.

“The key to what we have is just talking to each other,” he said. “My producer used to slag me about it. She decided to take my phone once and count all the messages between us. There were 232 in total.”

Karen added that honesty is a key ingredient in any healthy relationship.

“We have good standards. The only lies we will ever tell each other are white ones when we are trying to keep a surprise from one another. If one of us is trying to plan a surprise the other one will always try to find out what it is. It’s why we now have to keep two separate Amazon accounts.”

There will undoubtedly be plenty of surprises in store this September when Karen and Niall both celebrate significant birthdays.

Karen said: “Niall will be turning 60 and I’ll be turning 50. The plan is to return to Cork for a weekend, given that this was the place where we first met. We are really looking forward to spending time together”.

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