A MASTERCHEF finalist has left fans stunned after admitting to meeting her husband while he was her teacher.
Hope Batchelor, 31, appeared on this year’s season of MasterChef UK and made it all the way to the final three before being voted out.
The MasterChef finalist left fans stunned with her romance story[/caption]
Since then she has gone on to create a following on social media sharing recipes – but it’s not her brownies causing a stir online.
While celebrating a friend’s wedding she looked back on her own relationship and how it all began – back in school.
Hope revealed she and her husband, Lawrence, have a 12-year age gap adding: “So the reason there’s a bit of an age gap between Lawrence and I is because I met him whilst he was my teacher.
“Don’t worry it’s not an illegal situation, he was 30 I was 19, I was in college, it’s a legal situation.”
While it might have been legal, the college weren’t happy with the news and Lawrence lost his job.
Her partner was working at a Fashion College Hope attended and she admitted, ‘It was pretty simple, I fancied Lawrence, and I said to my friends I think I’m going to marry this guy.’
As her graphic design teacher Lawrence would help out with some of Hope’s projects so when she found him on Facebook she decided to shoot her shot.
Claiming her emails were down she messaged him on Facebook to ask for some help, and the rest is history.
“He called my bluff straight away,” Hope admitted, “he responded saying emails aren’t working, I’ve heard that before, he answered the question I had and he asked me another question.”
Hope knew she was in when he continued the conversation and shortly after the couple began dating.
They tried their best to keep it under wraps but eventually got caught out when they were discussing holidays together.
Hope was telling her friends the places she planned to visit with her boyfriend and Lawrence did the same with his colleagues – but it seemed one of the students realised they were going to the same spots and decided to let the college know their suspicions.
She recalled he was taken into a meeting at work on her 20th birthday and told to admit the relationship and leave or they would investigate and fire him in a ‘bad way’.
Lawrence decided to leave quietly instead but Hope says it was the best thing that could have happened.
Relationships in numbers: The most common way to meet someone
YouGov looked into how Brits find love, and your best bet is at work or through friends according to the data.
- Through work – 18%
- Through friends – 18%
- While out and about – 15%
- Other – 11%
- Online dating platform – 7%
- University or higher education – 6%
- Dating app – 6%
- School – 5%
- Shared hobby – 5%
- Family – 3%
- Face to face at an event – 0%
“That leads us on to where we are now, 12 years on we’re still together, and it was probably the best decision that we’ve ever made,” revealed Hope.
The clip posted to her TikTok account @toastwithhope went viral with over 289k views and 11k likes.
People were quick to share their thoughts in the comments section.
One person wrote: “Hope, you are fully of surprises, thanks for sharing. You and Lawrence were obviously destined for each other.”
Another commented: “Blimey!!!! Wasn’t expecting that.”
“Omg that was not what I expected,” penned a third.
Meanwhile a fourth said: “I love a love story. I’m glad it all worked out for you both.”
“A crazy story, but when you know you know!” claimed a fifth.
Someone else added: “Ooo that was juicy! Love that you’ve stayed together. Love is love.”
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