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I met my husband one week after moving to Mexico for what was supposed to be a 12 week trip to learn Spanish. We were complete opposites- I was serious, professional, Veggie and 6 years his senior. He was a classic skater bmx boy, never had a proper job. It was, as my Gran put it drunkenly at my hen do 'lust at first sight!' Language barriers didn't seem to be an issue- and luckily I'm a quick linguist! Within 3 months we were living together, within 5 we had adopted a street dog, but everything was with the looming deadline of my return to the UK- I had extended to a year but needed to return for my Masters.
A week before I left, he proposed and although I was worried he was too young, I was so in love I said yes.
We spoke every night on Skype and messaged constantly whilst trying to get everything in place for his fiancé visa. However, due to the endless paperwork we failed on a technicality for his first visa. It was devastating and also meant that he nearly didn't get let into the uk for a Christmas holiday to see me- luckily the immigration lady who spoke to me on the phone was sympathetic and we spent a wonderful six weeks together. It made us even more determined to be together. Once our paperwork was in order we reapplied and I flew to Mexico to be with him when he got the decision, as it was so awful being apart the first time. And he got the visa!! We got married in the summer 2013 and despite still many stresses and cultural differences we are still going strong, with a little house, another rescue mutt and now our very own precious baby boy. As a close mutual friend once said; you both shouldn't work on paper, everything was against you, but you are proof that sometimes you just have to go for it.

Mine was when I was a student. He lived on the other side of the country and wasn't capable of the commitment to not cheat over the summer holidays when we weren't seeing each other all the time.

I met my husband on the internet back in October 2002! We lived 183 miles away from each other.
We didn't last long at that distance though and I ended up moving to be with him in Feb 2003!

Ultra long distance, was an old friend/fame who circumstances lead us being together again 7 years ago after twice as long apart. Last week he announced he does have plans to move to the UK again.........but wants 'me' time, and won't consider anything other than 'friendship'. I've told him I'm not an 'option for when he's lonely/he doesn't get off with another woman (looking like another relationship failed through male mid life crisis - a lough a bit late to be calling it 'mid' life - ha!) and I'm currently nursing a broken heart. Have loves him all my adult life and now this - bollocks to him

Mine was very long distance - UK to Australia! We met in Europe when we were both working abroad and we're together for months. Then he had to go back to Oz, I was meant to flow but had an accident and couldn't. We kept in touch via phone calls and letters for 2 years but we're both skint. A year after that I went on holiday and while I was away he phoned my parents looking for me do mum gave him my number. This was before mobiles, emails etc and as they went on holiday before I got home I didn't know he'd phoned. Next thing he calls me from the UK as he'd saved and come over to see me. I was already seeing XH (who answered the phone) and had to say I couldn't meet him - biggest regret ever. If we'd had mobiles I'd have called him back when I was alone as my heart did still belong to hi I'm and if I'd met him I would probably have known one way or the other. Not fair to XH I know but I had put my Aussie man out of my mind as I'd thought we'd never see each other again. Unfortunately I never heard from him again and due to house moves (and I suspect XH) his address got mislaid. Still think of him 20 years later!

I was once in a relationship with a guy from Belfast - I'm in Aberdeen! It was crazy. Whirlwind romance when we finally met, but we met online and talked for a few months before that happened. We were together for about 11 months, visiting each other every 3-5 weeks for anything between a weekend and a fortnight at a time. It worked fairly well until my depression got too much and he 'couldn't take it' so he disappeared and started talking 3 weeks later after my birthday and had crappy excuses for his silence. By this time, I had accepted that I'd lost him, got help and spent the next 8 months being screwed over by him mentally before meeting my now DH in the February after this happened. 6 years later and I'm 2 weeks from giving birth to a child we never thought we could have. As Mrs Brown says, things always work out the way they're supposed to.

My DP lived 50 miles away from me for the first year and a bit. We met online and he at first had his son on weekends when I would be there so we kept it very casual in front of him, which was difficult but as we became more serious things naturally progresses. Almost a year a go DP moved in with me and within a week DP's ex asked him to have DSS full time. It was a bit of baptism by fire, suddenly having an instant family in my house but we have grown together to know each other's quirks and bringing up a gorgeous little boy together has only made us stronger!

I am living a long distance relationship. We are both French and I live in the UK and he lived in Paris France. We have a beautiful daughter who is now 3 years old and still live apart. We both have a past with children. At the moment it works for us. The next chapter has not been writing yet. We decided to live in the moment for now.

I met my partner when he was on detached duty, we met up at weekends and then eventually managed to get a transfer. :)

DH and I got together when we lived 2 hours apart. We saw each other every other weekend for a year or so then DH got a job in my home town and we've been together ever since. It was fine at the time because we were just at the start of our relationship - we both made an effort to make the weekends together really special but I'm glad the long distance element didn't last longer than a year

I met a guy when I was in second year in uni, and we stayed together for the next six years. He moved halfway across the country for work experience for six months when I was in third year, and the day he moved back, I moved to France to start my Masters. We were in the same place then for six months until he got offered a job in the company he'd done his work experience with, so he took it and moved two hours away again. Six months after that, I started my doctorate in London.
We did Ireland-London for two and a half years, but neither of us was really getting what we wanted out of the relationship, and eventually it became too hard to sustain. I loved him very much, but looking back, we dragged things out much longer than we should have - I was truly miserable for the last six months before I called it a day. Long distance is hard work, and you both have to be willing to put in far more concentrated and organised effort than otherwise. The times when it worked, it was really lovely, and I don't regret my relationship with him, but it made me miserable a lot more than it made me happy.

"Absence diminishes small loves and increases great ones, as the wind blows out the candle and blows up the fire."This is quote which kept me going and helped me to believe that long distance relationships will show how strong our love is and how our relationships will end.Even after proposal on St Valentine's Day at Eiffel Tower I wasn't sure that our love on distance will work.But 9 years later we are married, have two wonderful,very cheeky and bit crazy sons and we have our magical ever after !

DH and I met at university, but when we graduated he got a job at one end of the country and I went off to do a postgraduate course four hours away by train. Every weekend we used to travel back and forward to each other's pokey little flats. It wasn't too bad for me, because I had an interesting course in a big fun city and a circle of new-found mates from the student societies, but I think it was quite lonely for him in a cold, wet, uninspiring provincial town. Two years on when I'd finished my course I tried and failed to get a job near his workplace and ended up heading to London, so he was left commuting to see me at weekends again. In the end he got a job in London and we've been living together for the last 20-something years. My most vivid recollection is the relief on my boss's face when I told him my boyfriend was finally moving to London. He had been convinced that I was going to pack it in and move back to live with DH. Actually I do have other vivid recollections about weekend relationships, but I'm not going to share them with you lot .

I fell for somebody miles away and although we messaged constantly the time difference started to get in the way. When I realised I couldn't see a way for it to work long term (he was also in an unhappy marriage) I was heartbroken. I am grateful though as it opened me up to love and now I have the perfect partner for me

My boyfriend worked away always Monday's to Friday's so our weekends were all special and always have been.

Forkhandles I know exactly what you mean about the letters. We still have loads of the ones we wrote in a box in the loft. I could never throw them away.

I had one, given that I was intermittently living abroad. The best thing about it was the amazing letters, from him to me and vice versa. I still have the ones from him. Important ones from me I photocopied, but I wish I had all my letters. They were like a diary, full of quite embarrassing emotional gush too. All pre email, mobile phone and all that. So these I things I really treasure. I miss not getting love letters. And ones so crafted to woo anx keep wooing over a 1000 km.

24 years ago, when I was just 17, I fell in love with a US service man stationed at the local air base. After less than a year he was moved back to the States and we decided not to go down the LDR road and I went off to uni and we had no contact.

Almost a year went by, the only information I had was the name of the airbase he had been sent to in the US, but I called international directory enquiries who gave me the number and then, from the phone box in my halls of residence, I made the call. A quick conversation with the switchboard and I heard his voice again for the first time in months. That night we spoke for about 4 hours and it was like he'd never left. There was no email or internet so our relationship was rebuilt through letter writing and very expensive phone calls and transatlantic flights.

As soon as he was eligible to leave the service he did and he made the move from California to the UK to be with me. We got married a few weeks after he arrived in the UK and are looking forward to celebrating our 19th wedding anniversary next week

It was really, really tough for the 4 years we maintained the LDR and we often questioned our sanity, but all these years later we have two amazing children and neither of us doubt for a second that we made the right decision. We have worked through many tough times together safe in the knowledge that we are both fully committed to each other and in it for the long run.

Mine didn't work out, he cheated. But I think that was more about the person he was than the distance. I have known plenty of LDRs that have worked. They have all had a lot more going for them than mine.

I always thought I would love a long distance relationship, the benefits of being in a relationship with the freedom to live my own life most of the time. When now DH moved away with work I hated it, and it was only within UK. We met up when possible, party due to DH driving crazy distances during the week to see me, and DH quit the job before it finishes. Better in theory than in real life.

When I was in my 20s I had the chance to go to work in Montreal for two years.
I'd been in a relationship for about 18 months, but had the sense that my boyfriend was keener than I was and besides I didn't want to pass on what I felt was a fab opportunity, so I accepted the job.
Boyfriend was a bit upset, but we both agreed it was the right decision.
A few weeks before I was due to leave the boyfriend phoned me with exciting news - he'd mentioned to his work colleagues that I was moving and his boss had said they'd be willing to move him to their Canadian office for 12 months. He'd jumped at the chance and it had been agreed, but he'd kept it secret as he wanted to surprise me. I was a bit and but tried to be positive.
"That's great," I said "where will you be based?"
"Just outside Vancouver" he replied. "Is that far from you?"
"About 2200 miles...."

What a loon.

Outing myself here but my current relationship started out as long distance.
DP and I met at work and I fell really hard. Unfortunately, despite making it blindingly obvious, he didn't realise how I felt and when he was offered a significant promotion across the country he took it.
At his leaving drinks I was very upset and made a complete fool of myself. He thought I was nuts!
When he left I couldn't not stay in contact and we texted every day, hundreds of times and phoned whenever we had a chance.
He still had no idea I was in love with him.
Eventually, I told him. From then on I would travel to see him every time I had a day off and vice versa. Our bank balances have never quite recovered from the cost of the train travel!
After a few months of this back and forth, we had both fallen so hard that my work agreed to change my shifts so that I could have a couple of days off together every week.
Another few weeks later he asked me to move in with him permanently and a friend of ours running another branch of our company offered me a permanent full-time job with good prospects. I took it and 8 years later we are still together with one DD and DS due in the next few weeks.
Long distance relationships are hard and expensive, but so worth it if they're with the right person.

We had been together a year or so in the UK, but I had a long term plan to travel in Central America and teach English. I'd done the TEFL course, learned Spanish, and didn't want to give up this plan but DP was not keen to live in Central America.

So I went to Guatemala and found a job, he stayed in the UK. For 6 months we just had letters and the occasional phone call or email (there was not good internet access in Guatemala at the time). We weren't sure whether to stay together or not. And after a while I had to decide whether to come back to the UK for the relationship, or stay in Guatemala longer term as originally planned.

I came back, we stayed together and 20 years on have 3dc. So it worked. Except, I still regret not having spent longer in Latin America and I am planning to go back after the dc have all finished school. I do resent having come back a bit, I feel that DP should have been more prepared to live there with me at the time pre-kids and when our work was flexible.
We would definitely have split up if I'd stayed longer, 6 months half a world apart was long enough to make that clear. It wasn't as though you could meet up for weekends.

I think the key is having an end in sight and not doing it for too long. I've had 2 relationships like this. One just went on and on and on and on being long distance, many, many years. We ended up resenting each other. The other is now my husband. We knew it was only for a certain period of time so made it work.

I've had two long distance relationships. Both worked quite well. The difficulty was working out communication, because our lives were working to different tunes; when I was at work, he was off. When he was at work, I was studying. That kind of thing.

The hardest part was arguing with that distance. Knowing that you'd have to resolve it over the phone, or not, and that the only time for a face to face discussion was likely to be your only time together in person for several weeks, and not wanting that ruined. The flip side of that is that of course the time you do have together feells more special because you're not seeing that person every day. Their habits don't drive you bonkers because you're not around them enough.

Neither of the relationships ended purely because of the distance, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a contributing factor with both. It was very hard work. That said am still on talking terms with one of them, and the other one, we just drifted out of touch.

I completely admire those that have done it for years - I don't think I could do that.