An Irish woman redefined “long distance relationship” after flying an incredible 7,000 miles to Hawaii to meet a US man she’d matched with on Tinder — and now the two have a child together.
“Never in a million years did I think I would fall in love and start a family after accepting that Tinder message,” Clodagh O’Sullivan, 22, told SWNS of their intercontinental romance.
The incredible love story began all the way back in July 2019, while her future beau Brady Elliot, 25, was vacationing in Ireland. The Hawaii-based navy medic had booked a day trip to see the Cliffs Of Moher in O’Sullivan’s hometown of Dingle on Ireland’s southwest Atlantic coast.
Shortly after leaving while awaiting his flight home, the American started trawling Tinder for romantic prospects, whereupon he matched with the Emerald Isle gal.
“Brady was on a day trip to Cliffs of Moher, Dingle, so our apps must have been in proximity for about hour when we matched,” said O’Sullivan. “It’s really lucky we crossed paths.”
“I couldn’t really see his photos on Tinder so I wasn’t that interested, but he then sent me a funny meme from the Office and it made me laugh,” explained a lovestruck O’Sullivan.
Unfortunately, despite linking up virtually, the two future soulmates didn’t have a chance to meet in the flesh as Elliott, a musician, had to fly back to Hawaii for work, SWNS reported. “He was about to fly so couldn’t meet in person, but asked to add me on Instagram, and we started sending messages and speaking,” explained O’Sullivan.
“I was pretty obsessed with her from the get-go,” explained Elliot. “Even though it seemed a bit silly to keep texting someone two oceans away.”
O’Sullivan “didn’t expect anything to really come from it,” but after chatting daily on Facetime for hours on end, a romance began to blossom.
A few months later in 2019, Elliott mustered up the courage to invite his girlfriend-to-be to visit him in Hawaii — a whopping 7,000 miles away.
Unsurprisingly, O’Sullivan had reservations about flying across the world to meet someone she’d only interacted with online. “I nearly talked myself out of going to meet him,” the reluctant Tinder match explained. “For all I knew, he was some 80-year-old man catfishing me.”
“It’s really not like me to do something so spontaneous,” added the Irishwoman, who was somewhat put at ease by the fact that she’d spoken with Elliot’s friends and family.
O’Sullivan said she was ultimately “glad” she “booked the flight” as she “felt a spark straight away” upon meeting the Hawaiian Islander. “As soon as we met, I knew he was the one,” the starry-eyed O’Sullivan gushed of her American lover, who felt the same way.
“I knew Clodagh was the one right there in that airport and our first few weeks together felt like we had known each other through a thousand lifetimes,” Elliot fawned of their first meeting.
From there, the pair’s romance took off like an intercontinental rocket. That Christmas, O’Sullivan visited her new BF in Florida, where he’s originally from, whereupon they made their relationship official.
Then, during a vacation in Jamaica and the US in October 2020, O’Sullivan became pregnant with a baby boy, named Jamie Elliot, who arrived into the world in July 2021.
After their baby’s birth, Elliot moved to Dingle, Ireland, and bought a house with his girlfriend and new son and they hope to get married soon.
“We didn’t plan to have a baby, but it was the best surprise,” gushed the new mother. “I never thought anything like this would ever happen.”
She added, “But things felt right with Brady, and I had to follow my heart.”
O’Sullivan’s paramour seconded her sentiment. “Living in Ireland is amazing — I never would have imagined living in a different country,” he said. “But living here with her and our little baby boy is the most surreal thing I will ever experience, and I love every second of it.”
In a similarly aww-inspiring transoceanic love story last year, a UK woman reportedly fell in love with a New York co-worker she moved in with during COVID-19 quarantine — and kept their ensuing romance a secret from other colleagues for a whole year.
