I do, again, says bride after decades apart

Ann and Chris Jackson divorced over a quarter of a century ago but were brought back together when a picture of the happy couple after their first union was featured in a book.

On Saturday they had a second wedding, attended by delighted friends and family.

“It was just lovely. Everybody had got a bit older but it was fantastic to see them all there,” Mrs Jackson said. “There were more people there yesterday than we had at our original service.

“I think we were both more nervous this time round. When we walked together down the aisle I don’t know who was holding who up. We were both shaking, we were just so overwhelmed.

“I was really happy when the vicar said I was called Mrs Jackson again. It just felt right and I was so much happier when that ring was on my finger.”

The couple who had submitted the picture for the book, which got them back together, Jacqueline and Orrett Hanson, also attended the service.

Ann, now 54, originally met Chris, 60, at her brother’s wedding in 1973, when she was just 17. They quickly began dating and married in 1977 before moving closer to Chris’s family in Wrexham, North Wales. The move, however, put a strain on the relationship and they divorced in 1985.

After returning to Sheffield, Ann met and married Shaun McCreesh, having two children, Josh and Ellie, 14.

They too divorced in 2009 and a year later she was told about a book in which she was featured – Neil Anderton’s Dirty Stop Out’s Guide to 1970s Sheffield’.

In the book was a snap of newly married Chris and Ann at the reception venue, an image which tugged at Ann’s heartstrings.

She phoned Chris and four days later the former lovers met up with Chris popping the question for the second time just three weeks later.