Game leads to a real love match for online couple

A PAIR of gamers who met online while living more than 3,500 miles away from each other are now married with a baby and a heck of a story to tell.

- CONOR GOGARTY & PRESS ASSOCIATION

The couple dressed up as game characters the night they got engaged

Lewis Relfe, 25, and wife Ameila, 32, met in 2017 through the Friday The 13th game which is based on the popular horror movie series of the same name where players must work together to escape a masked killer.

The pair hit it off, chatting online and playing dozens of video games together for several hours a day, and soon started a long-distance relationship.

With Lewis based in Ceredigion and Ameila living 3,653 miles away in the US state of Virginia, they met in person for the first time in April 2018.

Lewis popped the question during a romantic trip to Aberystwyth for Halloween the following year and the determined pair were married via video call on New Year's Day in 2021 after the Covid-19 pandemic had thwarted their previous wedding plans.

After spending nearly six years living apart, Ameila was able to apply for a visa to obtain British residency in February 2023.

The pair settled in Talsarn, Ceredigion, and in April last year welcomed a daughter, Evelyn.

"Even though most of our relationship was spent living so far apart, it all feels like a distant memory now," said Lewis, an assistant cheese maker at a family-run dairy farm.

"I think playing video games helped keep us together because we spent a lot of time bonding through it."

Ameila, who works at a local restaurant, added: "Moving to the UK and starting a family isn't something I imagined doing.

"Once we started going through the process and we knew it was a possibility, it was a relief after so many years of waiting."