Wife reveals what happened after she ‘settled’ for Mr OK

A mum who had suffered heartbreak before believed she had settled for Mr OK – but Mr Right was standing in front of her the whole time.

Author and journalist Tess Stimson met her husband Erik in 2001 at a friend’s wedding in Florida. She was recently divorced and nursing a twice-broken heart.

Her first marriage was a “head over heels” love story with an award-winning war correspondent 17 years her senior, she said in the Mail.

After a “bitter” divorce, Tess met a diamond merchant from Lebanon. While their relationship had “the most intense chemistry I’d ever known”, he wouldn’t take on her two children and so they split.

The author decided she needed someone less career-driven and who wanted to be a dad to her sons, someone with whom she’d have the upper hand.

Then came Erik, not her Prince Charming, her “Mr Safe and Secure” who was not her type but “funny, intelligent and a fantastic listener”.

Her previous relationships made her associate love with drama, pain and passion so in comparison Erik was “too nice”.

He “never played mind games” and the more he tried to reassure Tess, the more she backed away. Looking back, she says, she doesn’t know how he put up with her, but he says he liked the challenge.

She unexpectedly got pregnant and decided to keep the baby, moving to Florida so they could raise her together. But Tess still saw Erik as a “placeholder”.

He proposed, she said no. He wanted to live with them, she said no. A year into their daughter’s life, she changed her answer to both to a yes.

A few years later, the couple married on a beach in Hawaii but Tess said “as fond as I was of my gorgeous new husband, he didn’t set my world alight”.

Erik’s continuous kindness became the bedrock of their marriage, with him easily handling Tess’ moods and temper.

Then, during lockdown, they became empty nesters. Tess found this “terrifying”, worried they had nothing in common. But instead it was the best year of their lives.

One afternoon, Tess was watching Erik sleep and she realised she “loved him in a way I couldn’t put into words”. She had “loved him all along” but “hadn’t had the sense to see it”.

Erik has never said ‘I told you so’ but sometimes reminds Tess that she doesn’t always know a good thing when she sees it.

Her “Mr Safe and Secure” ended up being her “Prince Charming” after all.