JESUS, MARRY AND JOSEPH!
School nativity stars get wed 30 years later
IT could be the greatest (love) story ever told.
A couple who played Mary and Joseph in their primary school nativity have married 30 years later after meeting again by chance.
Rose Childerhouse, 38, and James Macpherson, 40, tied the knot on Saturday in an emotional ceremony surrounded by family and friends.
‘It feels like it has been a long time coming, but it was worth the wait,’ the bride said. Mr Macpherson added: ‘It’s been a dream come true.’
The couple attended Sixpenny Handley First School in Salisbury, Wiltshire, and were picked to play the lead parts in the nativity play in the early 1990s.
Miss Childerhouse had a ‘schoolgirl crush’ on her older co-star – but the feel- ing wasn’t reciprocated.
Mr Macpherson, an advertising executive, said: ‘I remember the play and I wish I could say it was love at first sight, but it wasn’t.
‘I actually fancied another girl who was also taking part.’
Years later they ended up at the same university – Westminster, in central London – and dated briefly.
But Miss Childerhouse ended the relationship to go out with the lead singer of a band.
Then, 15 years later in 2017, they bumped into each other in Bournemouth, where they were enjoying nights out with their friends.
This time it really did seem to be a match made in heaven. Two years after the chance meeting, Mr Macpherson popped the question during a romantic weekend away in Dorset and they wed at the weekend in Farnham, Surrey.
Miss Childerhouse, a buyer, said: ‘Not in a million years did we think when we were just children that we would be getting married. It was just perfect timing, it couldn’t have been better. It just shows how small a world it is.’
Mr Macpherson added: ‘We are going to have to encourage our children to take part in the play when we have them because it has worked out so well for us.’ The couple will honeymoon in Greece.