How I Met My Partner: Online chat about how to eat pizza leads to new life in Cork for couple

Audrey Rose Sacris and Ben Powell met on an online platform, which they were both using due to their love for the same video game, but it was a heated conversation about how to eat a slice of pizza that initially got them talking.

Ben, who is originally from England, explained: “I saw a post, she was talking to someone else about how they ate their pizza crust first, I thought that was really weird and I wasn’t hesitant on calling her out for it.”

Audrey, originally from the Philippines, said: “I wasn’t even talking to him, I was enjoying a conversation with someone else so I said ‘I wasn’t even talking to you, what is your problem?’. And the rest is history.”

Their conversation went on for another hour, moving to a private chat. Ben recalled: “I must have fallen asleep at my computer, and when I woke up the next day we just continued speaking.

“We moved to calling each other, then video chatting, and honestly our entire days were spent just chatting. We started a call at 9pm and by the time we ended the call it was 4pm the next day.”

Audrey was in the process of getting paperwork sorted to move to Ireland when they started talking in March, and moved to Cork in September 2022. In February 2024, Ben moved to Cork too. She collected him from the airport — it was the first time they had met in person — and they moved in together right away.

Ben explained: “We were talking every day for almost two years at this point, and we had discussed me getting my own place in Cork but decided to move in together, it felt natural.”

He added that his family were a little bit worried he was moving country for a girl he hadn’t met in person, and were concerned if the pictures he’d shown them matched the person he was actually going to meet, but he said: “That’s all changed now, my parents love her and they think she’s a perfect fit for me.”

In July of last year, Ben decided to propose, and took extra shifts at work, and worked while sick or when he’d pulled a muscle in his leg, so he could save up for a ring. Audrey’s family visited Cork recently, and Ben asked her father’s permission.

He explained: “It was her mum’s birthday, and I knew the best present I could give her was to propose to her daughter on that day, so they’d get to be there for it even though they lived halfway across the world.”

Audrey added: “I’m a woman who likes to have everything planned and know what’s going on all the time — he usually can’t keep a secret from me, this is the only time he really caught me off guard.”

They headed to Ballincollig Regional Park to take pictures with her family, and Ben asked for a picture of just him and Audrey, at which point he popped the question. They are planning a small, intimate wedding in Ireland, followed by a bigger celebration in the Philippines with Audrey’s family.

They eat pizza about once a week, and manage not to argue about it.

Audrey explained: “It goes all the way back to my childhood, we grew up without much money and having pizza was always a big deal. My mum would never let me have another slice unless I’d eaten my crust because she thought it was a waste of food so I would eat it first to get it out of the way and savour the rest.”

Ben added: “I still think it’s weird.”