WHEN Ger Lynch and Jess Collins were paired together on First Dates Ireland, neither were convinced they had met the person they\u2019d spend the rest of their life with, but fate had other ideas.<\/p>\n
The couple initially met on series five of the hit RTE dating show during the summer of 2019 and while they hit it off on air, they didn\u2019t initially look at each other in a romantic sense.<\/p>\n
Jess and Ger were paired on First Dates Ireland Credit: RTE<\/p>\n
Initially, the couple felt no romantic spark Credit: Facebook<\/p>\n
Ger, who had been previously married and separated, decided to go on the show as he \u201chated\u201d online dating.<\/p>\n
While Jess admitted she saw the opportunity as a chance to get exposure for her comedy gigs \u2013 and definitely got more than she bargained for. <\/p>\n
Looking back now, both believe there were \u201cserendipitous signs\u201d from the very beginning.<\/p>\n
Jess said: \u201cWe just got on really, really well. Looking back now, it\u2019s hard not to see there was chemistry there straight away.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, after a lockdown spent together, the couple realised they were destined to be together<\/p>\n
They appeared on the Late Late retelling their love story Credit: RTE<\/p>\n
But despite the instant connection, they were \u201cvery honest\u201d after the date and \u201cdidn\u2019t ask\u201d for a second. <\/p>\n
The couple decided they were better off as friends and managed to keep in touch after filming.<\/p>\n
And just two weeks after meeting, Ger went on a date with another woman, who became his girlfriend by January 2020.<\/p>\n
He admitted: \u201cBy the time the show had aired, I was seeing somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ger and Jess stayed friends, regularly spending hours on the phone together.<\/p>\n
The pair joked they would end up on marathon calls lasting nearly five hours at a time.<\/p>\n
Ger admitted: \u201cThe more that conversation went on, the more I started seeing things a bit clearer, in terms of where I wanted to be and what kind of relationship I wanted to be in. So yeah, that (his then-relationship) ended.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pair remained pals through his break-up, with an event that would change the course of their relationship looming.<\/p>\n
Like millions across Ireland, the pair suddenly found themselves isolated during Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.<\/p>\n
The pair insist the show\u2019s producers know what they are doing<\/p>\n
The couple have a dog together<\/p>\n
Jess moved back home with her parents outside Navan after work in Dublin dried up, where Ger happened to live only 20 minutes down the road.<\/p>\n
His proximity to her Covid living situation was welcomed company for Jess, and they soon became part of each other\u2019s trusted bubble during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Jess said: \u201cGer would call over in the evenings and we\u2019d just hang out because nobody else could visit.\u201d<\/p>\n
When a second lockdown was announced later that year, Jess admitted she couldn\u2019t face staying at home indefinitely, leading Ger to make an offer for her to move in with him\u2026as friends.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cI told her there was a spare room here and she should move in. We got on great and both needed company.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jess took him up on his offer and moved in on New Year\u2019s Eve 2020, fully expecting it to be a temporary arrangement and planned to have moved out within three months.<\/p>\n
She joked: \u201cI never really moved out again. I moved in with the intention of moving back around the end of February, and then, all of a sudden, it was November 2021, and that\u2019s pretty much when we realised there was a lot more to this friendship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite living together, the pair insisted their relationship remained completely platonic for months.<\/p>\n
Even though from the outside, it looked very much like they were already a couple.<\/p>\n
They cooked together, spent every evening together and even got a dog together, with Ger\u2019s own family quickly pointing out the obvious.<\/p>\n
He recalled: \u201cMy brother said, \u2018You\u2019ve been in a relationship for a year already. You just don\u2019t realise it\u2019. We went shopping together, got dinner together and got a dog together.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Jess\u2019 dad thought we were in a relationship for the entire time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jess admitted however, her friends repeatedly warned her not to \u201cmake a story out of a friendship\u201d.<\/p>\n
She explained: \u201cI was prone to being a little bit delusional about my friendships with men.\u201d<\/p>\n
But privately, she was beginning to suspect there might be something deeper there.<\/p>\n
She continued: \u201cAnd I kept saying, \u2018There\u2019s something there\u2019, as the year went on. But there was this line in the sand we didn\u2019t cross.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the end of the second lockdown approached, Jess started to make plans to move back to Dublin and began to make arrangements for the move by phoning friends, but one evening Ger overheard a call and the idea of Jess moving out devastated him.<\/p>\n
He explained: \u201cI got an immediate, kind of foreboding feeling of, \u2018Hang on a second. I\u2019m not sure I\u2019m okay with this. I\u2019m not sure I want this\u2019, and we\u2019re still friends at this point.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt that point, it was protecting a friendship as well. Because you\u2019re in your 40s now and you\u2019re thinking, \u2018These friendships don\u2019t come around that often\u2019, and they\u2019re easy to lose. You need to keep them when you can.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, he decided to say nothing to Jess and keep his feelings to himself.<\/p>\n
However, a few evenings later, the pair were drinking wine and dancing in the kitchen when Ger finally admitted the thought of Jess leaving upset him.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cI told her I didn\u2019t want her to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jess then admitted she didn\u2019t want to leave either, he added: \u201cAnd then we kissed. And that was that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following his separation, Ger had convinced himself he would never remarry, but life with Jess slowly changed his outlook completely.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cI remember thinking, \u2018Why would I not want to spend forever with this person?\u2019 It\u2019s just easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jess also admitted marriage wasn\u2019t something she imagined for herself entering her 40s.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cYou kind of get to an age where you think if it happens, it happens. And then suddenly somebody says, \u2018No, I\u2019m going to marry you\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
The couple eventually tied the knot in 2024, even changing their wedding song after rewatching emotional footage from their First Dates reunion.<\/p>\n
And despite everything, both still insist the show\u2019s producers knew exactly what they were doing all along.<\/p>\n
The couple feel anyone can experience the same love they found from the show, if singletons go in with an open mind.<\/p>\n
Jess said: \u201cIt\u2019s such an Instagram phrase and I hate it, but honestly \u2013 trust the process.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike, if you\u2019re in that [show] to win, if you want to meet somebody, the producers know what they\u2019re doing. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a reason they\u2019ve put the two of you in front of each other, you just need to find out what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WHEN Ger Lynch and Jess Collins were paired together on First Dates Ireland, neither were convinced they had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[75],"tags":[26408,18,117,217169,19,17,1181,205820],"class_list":["post-499467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-dating","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-first-dates","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-rte","tag-sun-club"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116625487608646866","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}