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Mine was supposed to be a confidence-boosting fling after my marriage broke up, ironically I was left for a long-distance 'other woman'. It didn't last, what a shame.

My flingee had chucked his job and was going round the Southern Hemisphere for a year after his own breakup. I had known him as a colleague and suggested we get back on the horse together before he flew away. We had an intense 6 weeks, then wrote and sent postcards, emailed texted and phoned, and were generally overblown and giddy about each other.

He lasted 4 months away and came back at Christmas time. He struggled to find work and then got a job...300 miles away. Deep joy. Another year of long distance, but at least it was in this country, and it was actually a very good thing, as we needed to process where we'd been and where we wanted to go.

Now it's five years later and we're engaged. Even though we are together, we're still semi-detatched because I work days and he works evenings. It means when we are together we pay attention and are pleased to see each other, and I like the self-reliance being apart brings too. Plus when one of us dies, the other will be ok! ;)

Mine was a usual uni one that did not last sadly. Probably more to do with the change from home to uni experience than long term relationships specifically though.

I am married, this year for 11 years, to my long distance relationship, and we have a 9 year old child now. We met, lived on different continents, and dated for 2 years, before I packed up, and moved to be with him in the UK. It was hard living apart, but we learnt to communicate, and grew to appreciate the small pleasures of just been together when we would get together. It's not for everyone, there was lots of longing and missing each other, but it worked for us.

DH and I have been together for more than 12 years and Over a 4 year period We had a long distance marriage. In fact it happened twice 2 - for more than 12-18 months each time.
We lived in different hemispheres from each other both times and the first time we were childless and footloose and fancy free and saw each other every other weekend. It was a fabulous time for both of us whilst I pursued my career in London and he his. I loved my time on my own as a single girl about time. It was like being young again, but with money!! Of course I worked hard and partied harder!!!!
Unfortunately DH was offered the job a week after we decided we were old enough to start a family. After 9 months we decided it was going to be difficult to achieve this within our current lifestyle so I applied a sabbatical from my job, once I had achieved a promotion I had been after. Amusingly we must have conceived the weekend after that application went in!! Therefore my 3 month conception holiday was not to be! I still took the planned sabbatical as I didn't want to jinx the pregnancy but it was quite q different 3 month break to the one planned!

I returned to the uk and we returned to seeing one another every other weekend and we had DC1. I hired a doula in case DH was unable to make the birth but he was there & she coached him through it.

DH started commuting weekly which was a drain for all of us but we survived. He eventually returned home on a full time basis 3 months after pfb was born.

When pfb was 18mo I was offered a job - in the same city DH had worked!! We jumped at the chance. We arrived in the Southern Hemisphere a month before pfb's 1st birthday to find a beautiful sunny city with a great climate. DH had not found a role there yet so commuted back to London for 6 months, joining us 1 week in 3. Pfb and I had a fabulous time personally and professionally but we missed DH. He was unable to find work so in the end we called the assignment to an end before the initial 2 year contract was up.

Was a fabulous experience and I do enjoy time on my own and the getting back together but it is hard on kids and there is a danger a couple will drift apart as they pursue different interests and develop different friendships. Of course I was in a country which was child friendly and affordable domestic help was available on tap.

Would I do it again? Yes, but not with so much distance between us!! 2 or 3 or 4 nights away should be the maximum length of time regularly apart at a time to maintain a happy family. I would also only do it again with plenty of domestic support - a full time (live in) housekeeper / nanny would be a necessity!!

We have a long distance marriage.

My husband is in the forces, and we don't live near his base so he travels home at weekends, or he is away for weeks and months at a time.

It's been like that since we met, he would come home at weekends, and he met me at a friend's house when he came home one weekend and his parents had gone on holiday without telling him. He couldn't get into their house so went to see his best friend (who was living with my best friend) to ask if he could stay with them for the night, and I was there. We got talking and it felt like we would never run out of things to say.

He asked if he could call me during the week, I didn't expect him to call but he did, and that was the start of our long distance relationship.

We even had a long distance marriage proposal, by accident over the telephone, and had to wait five days to see each other afterwards. We were married seventeen weeks later, and in that seventeen weeks he was sent away for several weeks, we both came down with chicken pox, and we only had weekends to organise things, but it was a lot of fun all the same.

Three weeks after we got married, we moved into our married quarter, and two days later he was sent abroad for six months.

Even when he was back, he wasn't always based where our married quarter was, and our relationship was still long distance, so we eventually bought a house in our home town and now he travels to and from home from wherever he is based.

It's worked for us for fifteen years now, we make it work with lots of phone calls, texts, emails, Facebook, notes left in work bags, even chalked messages on the kitchen wall (if he leaves while we are sleeping there's often a heart or a message drawn on the blackboard wall for us to wake up to).

I think having to live long distance makes us appreciate the time we have together more and more. It's not easy, and it's not for everybody, but if you have love and trust then you make it work and it can be a lot of fun.

We met in Munich during a long hot summer, he was a friend of a friend and we got super friendly one night in the local park

Off he went to sail around the world, and came back in the long, cold winter. Too cold to go outside now, so he bunked in with me, and that was that really.

He kept on sailing a few more years, I lived here there and everywhere and sailed a bit too, and somewhere in the middle we got married and had a child.

There's no more sailing away now and we put down roots, but I still have the airmail letters he sent all those years ago. The postcards and the Valentines and the photos and the memories of the handsome engineering officer stepping out to meet me in Aruba, in Barcelona, in Venice.

I met my husband whilst backpacking in Australia (such a cliche, i know!), and we long distanced for about a year before he took the plunge and moved over here. I have to say it was an incredible leap of faith on his part as we had only been together for 2 months prior to me leaving to carry on travelling before returning home. Although it sounds super intense, in a way a long distance relationship is a great way to get to know someone at the beginning of a relationship. You have nothing but long skype calls where there are no phones or friends distracting you, just pure hours of conversation! I think it is a silver lining in an otherwise crap cloud.

I met this handsome guy online from London and I was living in the midlands at the time with my family. Always was fascinated with the big smoke so thought why not you never know so after a few weeks of talking/emailing he asked me to be his date at his friends engagement party.
From then on id drive down every fri to be with him for the weekend this lasted one year and then transferred my job to London so got to see him even more and things got serious I was thinking of telling my parents about him which didn't go to plan. As I fell pregnant! We got married a few months later and welcomed our baby boy later in the year. We are now proud parents of 2 lovely children and looking forward to our 5th wedding anniversary this year xxx

We weren't that far apart when we met, only a hour or so, but my - now! - DH was in the army so we've had plenty of days/weeks & months apart. Whilst he was on his last tour in Afghanistan I wrote to him every other day about all the day to day mundane things I was doing which helped keep us connected and I lived for a brief 3 minute call every few weeks. It wasn't exactly fun but getting through that has made normal life far easier!

Me and my wonderful DP have been LDR for five years after meeting whilst travelling. Now he's relocated and we've just bought a house together and got engaged

O lived in Cornwall, he lived in the Midlands. I workef shifts, he was at uni. I drove there and back in a day just to see him. He would come down on the train, with romantic meetings at the station. We talked on the phone every day, and even wrote letters. We did the long distance thing for three months, then I moved up north to be with him. Did it work out? Yes, after 18 months he proposed and we got married nine months later. Now nearly nine years down the line, I still smile at it all.

I met my husband 15 years ago when we both worked in a small town in the USA. My husband was only on an internship and needed to return to his country to finish his studies. I visted him and he visited me for two years until he finally got a permanant job in the USA and we got married. We have lived all over due to his work, three seperate times in the UK, twice in the US since we married, twice in Brazil and once in Chile. He also worked short contracts during that time and would sometimes be away for 2-3 months at a time to places like Iran, Nigeria, Norway and Ireland. He finally left his engineering and two years ago we moved permantly to his home country and bought a farm. We now live in a small town in Brazil where he grew up. He still does contracts every so often if a good one comes along as we are currently building a house so at the moment he is spending 2 months in Angola which will give us the money to complete the house and put some money into the farm.
Living away from each other has made our relationship stronger and we appreciate the time we have to do mundane stuff. We have 4 children.

I will need to come back to this.

I met my now husband 12 years ago when he came to the uk to study a masters at my university. 9 months after meeting, he had to return to Brazil to finish his studies there and we had a long distance relationship for the next 2 years. The longest period that we didn't see each other for (I had no iPad/iPhone/webcam at the time, but thank goodness at least for Skype!) was 8 months and it was really hard. He had two failed visa applications during that time in order to come back, but eventually managed it. We've been married 3 years, have a 2 year old DD and another due in June. It can work if you both want it to!

My boyfriend at the time, announced he was off to business college to do his MBA and was then a 2 hour drive away. I was distraught and thought that would be the end of things for us. In fact, it made him realise how much I meant to him and he invited me to visit for the weekend. I ended up typing up his assignment and then we went to the pub, next morning I did his washing. After a year of us both driving 2 hours up and down the motorway, he graduated, we moved in together and he popped the question. We've been married 27 years now, it can work, it just takes patience and lots of give and take. Still doing his washing!

Mine wasn't even that longer distance (couple of hours drive) but I was young and it didn't work because I wanted everything in one place.

Never had a long distance relationship so cannot understand fully all the issues

moving as a teenager 250 miles to north wales was quite sad for me as i had recently fallen in love with a lad i had known all my life and he had liked me too! we did try and write to each other and phone once in a while but it soon fizzled out, he went into the army, i got a full time job after school, then years later while i was going through my divorce we accidently met up in a friends wedding, we started dating and now 20 years later we are very happy!! who says long distance doesnt work hey?

I experienced a long distance relationship during my University years. We were other ends of the UK (so not overseas far!!) But we managed to meet pretty much every weekend over four years. We eventually married - we are now divorced!!

My current relationship is a long distance relationship. He lives in Birmingham, I live in Kent.

He was a friend who had approached me about doing some freelance work for the organisation he works for but he had found me through a mutual friend. We met up as friends and just clicked. Nearly three years later he travels to me every weekend (I live here with DS whereas he lives in a house share).

We got engaged last year, however, he has worked for the same organisation for the past twenty years and it's a very niche job, whereas I am struggling to find work here, and due to the fact that DS is just about to head into GCSE years I am unable to move so we have no idea how or when we will be able to be together permanently. we're not going anywhere though. .

Well, my story is as cheesy as they come! My best friends ex husband was getting re married and I took her to Blackpool (of all places) for a girly fun filled weekend to forget about it. That night we giggled away about the fella in the pub who kept staring my way - who eventually plucked up the courage to come over and chat. We joined their group and went off clubbing the night away - giving him my number at the end of the night but never expecting to hear from him. I did. I lived in Lancashire and he lived in Bristol which meant about 170 miles between us, so no date nights in the week. We then spent every weekend for the next 9 months with one of us doing the journey after work on a Friday night to spend the weekend together - and because we hadn't seen each other all week we both made extra efforts to make our weekends nice & special. We really did have some lovely times, always making a point to do something memorable. I guess the distance between us and the effort it required made us decide pretty soon if it was worth it and we were going to go the distance and after 9 months we decided that it would be easier for me to move to Bristol and I started looking for work. Within 2 weeks I'd secured a job and that was it - off I moved, leaving all my family & friends behind and knowing only him. An engagement followed a few months later with a wedding the following year. Now here we are 2 children later and approaching our 14 year wedding anniversary. Who'd have thought! Sometimes fate plays a part and you have to follow your heart and give love a chance!!

My long distance love was a boyfriend who lived in my hometown whilst I was at University. We lasted a year before I finished my course and returned home then 2 more years.

I had a long distance relationship for nearly three years before I moved to be with my then boyfriend. We're from different countries and met abroad on holiday but now we over 10 years later, we're still together - living together, married and with two children. It was all worth it though having a long distance relationship was very hard due to missing each other lots.

long distance hmmm the only one I know of is between my sis and her man when they went to diff universitys. they were amazing. he did struggle and fukd up one time. but they are still here today and inspire me. I see so much love in them. they just fit. they are one and I cant imagine life without him or them as one.
for me I don't have one with a man. my long distance though if I'm aloud was as love renching. I was taken from my family from age 11 to 15 due to reasons. it was the hardest of my life. I saw them little and I still want to vomit now when I remember how we screamed when we had to part and how I just see there backs as I clawed at the windows to get them back to me.
I did get back to them. I live now with a sickening love for them and an appreciation so strong I don't think many other know of it being possible.

I fell in love with a man on a plane when I was a teenager. He was ridiculously handsome and French ... a businessman. He initially thought that I was French too (I'd agreed that I would speak nothing but French as soon as I left England). I was super nervous, my first trip abroad, alone and to be with a family I didn't know. (Full credit to my French teacher, who taught me so well and gave me confidence). Anyway this Frenchman was incredibly lovely. We spoke at length on the plane and he waited with me until I found my family at the arrivals lounge. He gave me his address and phone number, in case I had problems whilst I was in France with my pen pal and urged me to contact him if he could help in anyway. I had a fantastic holiday and I didn't contact him until I got home. I then wrote and thanked him for being so caring and a gentleman. He was a wealthy man and regularly travelled. He wrote often and sent me gifts from around the world. He called me his English princess. We wrote up until a few years ago ... and now, whilst we're both married with children - we still send Christmas cards. I will never forget his kindness..