Kismet: Real love stories of serendipity, cosmic timing, and meeting “the one”

British actor Simon Boughey had been engaged (sort of) three times, but never made it down the aisle. By 49, he had made peace with the idea that marriage just wasn't for him. A trip to New York and a matchmaking friend changed his plans... and his life. In this episode, Simon shares reflections on why he felt he was meant to be single,  and how the right woman changed his mind. We talk about transatlantic love, taking risks, building a relationship while in the throes of grief, leveling up, and recognizing gamechangers. If you've ever wondered whether it's too late for you, this one's for you.Topics covered: finding love after 40, mid-life love, transatlantic relationships, grief and love, long distance relationships, commitment**Kismet is a podcast about meeting the one: real stories, real people, real hope. New episodes drop biweekly on Thursdays! Follow along on Instagram: @kismetstoriespodcast.Follow the show on Instagram: @kismetstoriespodcast Share your own Kismet moment: [email protected]🎧 Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app 🌟 If you enjoyed the episode, please consider leaving a review. It really helps!

Season 2 Coming Soon! Follow the show on Instagram: @kismetstoriespodcast Share your own Kismet moment: [email protected]🎧 Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app 🌟 If you enjoyed the episode, please consider leaving a review. It really helps!

Growing up, Michelle didn't quite fit in. She was diagnosed with three learning disabilities that required special tutoring and prevented her from being able to drive. Kids were mean and said hurtful things. She was told she'd never go to college or find love, and initially she believed it. The dates and relationships she had didn't inspire much confidence.Eventually, Michelle leaned into her strengths and found community within the artist circles in her town. She went to college and graduated with a Bachelor's degree. She began to write, perform at poetry events, volunteer at an arts center, and make friends who saw her, loved her, and accepted her. Since she couldn't drive, she walked everywhere, and began photographing the flowers and scenery she spotted along the way. While building a rich life of friendship, passion, and self-discovery, she attracted a secret admirer who adored her exactly as she is... and he loves to drive!This is a story about a patient, steady love that developed slowly and was built on friendship. A love story that was seemingly written in the stars, with premonitions, missed connections, and shared interests lighting the way. A complementary love where each brings their own unique strengths and helps the other shine.Michelle's story is a reminder the things that make us different also make us special, and that we should never hide who we are... because who you are is perfect to the right person.  Follow the show on Instagram: @kismetstoriespodcast Share your own Kismet moment: [email protected]🎧 Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app 🌟 If you enjoyed the episode, please consider leaving a review. It really helps!

Elizabeth and Matthew both worked in the wedding industry, but neither had found their own match. She was a photographer from the west coast; he was a DJ from the east coast. Both were laser focused on their careers when they decided to attend a wedding convention in Las Vegas.When they met on the monorail the first day, it was purely a professional connection. But, a DM, a broken wine glass, and a casual quip shifted the vibe. What happens in Vegas doesn't always stay in Vegas! Their whirlwind romance led to a cross-country move just weeks after they met, adventures on a schoolie, and supporting each other through some of life's biggest hurdles. Today, they’re partners in love and business, but it all started by following their own path... which just happened to lead them to each other.To see their work and book them for your own wedding, visit their website:https://thedaveyduo.com/Thank you, Elizabeth and Matthew, for sharing your story!  Follow the show on Instagram: @kismetstoriespodcast Share your own Kismet moment: [email protected]🎧 Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app 🌟 If you enjoyed the episode, please consider leaving a review. It really helps!

Elise first saw the band, Jump Little Children, while still in high school with Kismet host Emily Callaway. She instantly felt a connection with the music... and an attraction to the quiet, bespectacled guy behind the drum set. Over the next few years, Elise would see the band many times in different cities across the country. Until one fated night... the quiet, bespectacled drummer noticed HER. That was only the beginning. Their love story unfolded over the course of nearly a decade as they wove in and out of each other's lives, each moving into new careers, relationships, and phases of growth on their own. After years without contact, an unexpected message put them on a path to reunite — this time for good.Elise’s story is a reminder that sometimes love isn’t about chasing. It's about becoming who you are meant to be, and trusting the universe to meet you where you are.Special thanks to my dear friend, Elise Giannasi Bivins, for sharing her story!  Elise's Substack Follow the show on Instagram: @kismetstoriespodcast Share your own Kismet moment: [email protected]🎧 Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app 🌟 If you enjoyed the episode, please consider leaving a review. It really helps!

Their circles orbited for years. Diana Krach attended the same church as her future husband, and they went to rival high schools in the same town. They shared mutual friends. Went to the same concerts. He was the guy she'd heard about for years; she even knew an acquaintance who'd dated him. Yet inexplicably, they'd never met; she had no idea what he even looked like. Her friend tried several times to introduce them over nearly a decade, convinced they’d be great friends, but it never quite panned out... until it did.This is Diana’s story of meeting her person within her own extended circle. A skeptic of love with examples of healthy relationships, she shares how she became her own model of what a strong partnership can look like. Diana reflects on how life with the right person can be a safe place to explore, experiment, and discover who you truly are. And that sometimes, your friends really do know best.Key themes: Relationships, Love, Personal Growth, Dating, Serendipity, Communication, ParentingCall to action: Listen to the full episode and subscribe to the Kismet Stories Podcast for more conversations about love, life, and the serendipitous moments that shape our stories.Thanks to Diana for sharing her story! You can connect with Diana here:Your Highness SubstackGetting Personal with Plant MedicineDiana's writing portfolioWe Blame Roseanne PatreonFollow the show on Instagram: @kismetstoriespodcast Share your own Kismet moment: [email protected]🎧 Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app 🌟 If you enjoyed the episode, please consider leaving a review. It really helps!

Note to listeners: This episode contains discussion of domestic violence and suicidal ideation. Please use caution when listening.Pamela's Kismet Story: Finding Love After 50Pamela had hit rock bottom. In her 50s, she'd survived childhood neglect, spousal abuse, and a life that never seemed to go her way. With her children grown and a career path that no longer fit, she was left alone in the depths of a depression that seemed to have no bottom. In a last effort to forge a new path, she took a leap of faith. She moved across the country with a one-way bus ticket and no real plan. She wasn't looking for romance; in fact, she was adamant she never wanted to have a relationship again. But, in her journey to healing herself, she discovered the one thing that had always evaded her: true, deep, forever love. In classic Kismet fashion, her story is full of serendipity, fate, missed connections, and perfect timing.Pamela's story shows that your past doesn't define you, and it's never too late to find your person.Connect with Pamela: IG: @innerjourney.pamelatopjianYT: @pamelatopjianFollow the show on Instagram: @kismetstoriespodcast Share your own Kismet moment: [email protected]🎧 Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app 🌟 If you enjoyed the episode, please consider leaving a review. It really helps!

In this episode, I share my Top 5 Lessons I've learned this year from my Kismet guests who’ve met The One. I also reveal how I’m applying these lessons to my own dating journey. This episode is packed with practical and powerful dating tips from real life couples to help you on your journey to finding true love!00:00 - Intro / Why I've Realized I'm Single04:00 - Lesson #505:24 - Lesson #408:04 - Lesson #310:31 - Lesson #213:25 - Lesson #115:20 - How I'm applying the lessons to my dating life29:00 - Being Single During the HolidaysFollow the show on Instagram: @kismetstoriespodcast Share your own Kismet moment: [email protected]🎧 Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app 🌟 If you enjoyed the episode, please consider leaving a review. It really helps!

A chance meeting on a sailboat in the Whitsunday Islands brought Jenny and Darryl into each other's lives. They were from different continents, and both were committed to other people. During their time in Australia, they got to know each other's friends and families, and their bond grew stronger. Jenny even invited Darryl and his wife to her wedding. For years, they kept in touch via Facebook updates and occasional texts. And then, they were both single. They remained friends, though they still didn't live in the same country...until the Matrix glitched, and everything changed. Sometimes, two people are just meant to be together. This episode explores how fate, timing, and the universe can align in ways that are beyond explanation. Kismet.Follow the show on Instagram: @kismetstoriespodcast Share your own Kismet moment: [email protected]🎧 Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app 🌟 If you enjoyed the episode, please consider leaving a review. It really helps!

Their story was a decade in the making, and filled with all of the synchronicities one could want for a love story. An OkCupid match in 2010 that never resulted in a date. Years later, a random dinner party for mutual friends they didn't know they had -- weeks before she was to marry someone else. They went to the same bookstore every week. Attended the same concerts. For 10 years, they orbited each other... before the Universe dropped him in her life for good. This is Gabi's story of missed connections and the Universe's perfect timing.00:00 - Introduction & Background02:24 - Getting Divorced... just in time for Covid!04:58 - A new Instagram Follower13:02 - Jumping In and Building the Foundation19:30 - The synchronicities and strange coincidences start to add up28:22 - Big life changes32:28 - Fostering healthy communication while healing40:55 - An emotional moment47:00 - Advice for SinglesFollow the show on Instagram: @kismetstoriespodcast Share your own Kismet moment: [email protected]🎧 Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app 🌟 If you enjoyed the episode, please consider leaving a review. It really helps!

Flora Quinby was on a journey of self-discovery.Flora Quinby, a Rocket Scientist who "loved planning her life out,” was devastated when her world blew up in her face. Her husband had just walked out on her without warning, and suddenly the life she'd planned evaporated. On her path of self-discovery, she decided to make the move from California to Florida, and eventually decided to quit her job at Space-X and focus on building her own company. Just as she was getting comfortable in her new home, a chance encounter on a dating app uprooted her world again. What followed was a risky move abroad and a new chapter filled with challenges, love, and personal growth. In this episode, Flora opens up about trusting her gut, taking chances, learning to love herself, and embracing the gray areas of life.Chapters:00:00 Introduction and Background01:19 Divorce and a New Beginning09:40 An Match Made in Melbourne (Florida)13:22 A European Vacation22:25 A First Meeting & Doing All Risky Things27:07 Meeting the Family37:00 Building Trust39:36 Learning to Live in the Gray Space44:49 Making the Move to Germany51:45 A First Christmas & the Best Gift54:05: Beginning A New Chapter01:00:24 Words of Wisdom for SinglesFollow the show on Instagram: @kismetstoriespodcast Share your own Kismet moment: [email protected]🎧 Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app 🌟 If you enjoyed the episode, please consider leaving a review. It really helps!

Pamela was in no position to fall in love.  Fresh out of a traumatic breakup, her goals in the Dominican Republic were to 1.) win her ex back and 2.) flirt with tall, dark, and handsome locals. Falling for a coworker-- one she met three times before realizing who he was-- wasn't part of the plan. He was a ginger. He hated musicals. They were total opposites. David wasn’t her type, and she was too heartbroken to care. However, sometimes love arrives in the most unexpected packages and at the most inconvenient times.  This is Pamela's story of waving every red flag... and meeting the man who saw through them all, loving her patiently as she healed and found herself again. Follow the show on Instagram: @kismetstoriespodcast Share your own Kismet moment: [email protected]🎧 Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app 🌟 If you enjoyed the episode, please consider leaving a review. It really helps!

Devon, UK had always felt like home, though Julia never quite understood why. Every year, she made a pilgrimage from her home in Boston to the English countryside.On one such trip, a friend of a friend who she’d never met reached out to her on Instagram. It was her last night in Devon, and she already had plans. But, a late-night drunk dial led to the ride that would change both of their lives forever.This is Julia’s long-distance Kismet love story.Follow the show on Instagram: @kismetstoriespodcast Share your own Kismet moment: [email protected]🎧 Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app 🌟 If you enjoyed the episode, please consider leaving a review. It really helps!

Rose had been single for seven years. As a woman in her late 40s, she'd shifted her focus from men and to being her best, independent self. She certainly wasn't looking for love the day she took herself out for a solo Valentine's Dinner Date atop one of the most scenic restaurants in the Tetons. In a story that could be basis for a romantic comedy, Rose shares how a series of comical mishaps led her to meet her person while waiting for the bus on the day dedicated to love. Special thanks to Rose Caiazzo for sharing her Kismet Story! You can connect with Rose via her website or IG: @jacksonholerose.Follow the show on Instagram: @kismetstoriespodcast Share your own Kismet moment: [email protected]🎧 Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app 🌟 If you enjoyed the episode, please consider leaving a review. It really helps!

It was written in the skies.Julieta's love story begins when she encounters a handsome stranger twice in a single week, on separate flights, to-and-from different cities. As the two lock eyes and begin to speak, they discover they live just down the street from each other. Julieta's story of fate and synchroncities is just the beginning, as she shares how they continue to grow and care for their love during challenging times. She opens up about postpartum depression and facing her own toxic patterns, and using Human Design as a tool to understand her partner-- and herself-- better. This is a story that starts with a Kismet moment, but the real magic is in the communication, consideration, and commitment they've made over and over to each other. Special thanks to Julieta Duvall for sharing her Kismet love story! You can find Julieta at The Unschooling Lifestyle or connect with her on Instagram.Follow the show on Instagram: @kismetstoriespodcast Share your own Kismet moment: [email protected]🎧 Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app 🌟 If you enjoyed the episode, please consider leaving a review. It really helps!

India shares her powerful story of healing from abusive relationships, embracing and celebrating her queer identity, and learning to trust her gut — and her friends, who had been hyping Alana for a year. When they finally meet, sparks fly, but the timing isn’t right — and India lives across the country. Still, the universe keeps pulling them together through a series of cosmic coincidences: a death at a wedding, a bucket-list race, and a series of matchmakers— some of whom are complete strangers. Through it all, the message is the same: Just Say Yes. This is a story of love, friendship, and the journey to connection through staying true to one’s authentic self.Thank you to India & Alana for your vulnerability and openness to share your powerful love story. You can connect with India on Instagram @southernqueeries or her website, Southern Queeries.Chapters00:00Introduction 02:38Navigating all the wrong types of romantic relationships10:50The Coming Out moment14:13Decision to divorce and be true to herself19:52India meets Alana20:40Alana joins the show23:37A grandfather inspires a cosmic connection from beyond the grave24:55Running Towards Love27:03Atlanta Pride & Alana's big realization33:12A trip to Chicago: Just Say Yes!41:52The Work Trip that turned Friendship to Romance48:04The Moment She Knew51:00The Best Surprise & The Beginning of a New Life Together53:45Advice for Singles on Finding Love1:00:41How to connect with IndiaFollow the show on Instagram: @kismetstoriespodcast Share your own Kismet moment: [email protected]🎧 Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app 🌟 If you enjoyed the episode, please consider leaving a review. It really helps!

Meghann Dawson shares her transformative journey from trauma to manifesting the love of her life. Through therapy and deep self-exploration, Meghann identified her toxic patterns and learned to clarify what she truly wanted in love. Just hours after writing her love intention, her future partner reached out with a bold and unexpected proposition. Because she had just told the universe what she was ready, she felt empowered to say yes to the spontaneous adventure that changed her life. What followed was a beautiful unfolding of connection, growth, and a relationship rooted in alignment.Her story is a powerful reminder that when we are clear about what is really important to us and lead with self-worth, intention, and vulnerability, the universe will often deliver exactly what we want, at exactly the right time.👉 If you believe in soulmates, synchronicity, or the power of manifesting love, this story will speak to you.💫 Subscribe for more real love stories of fate, serendipity, and cosmic timing.📲 Follow us on Instagram: @kismetstoriespodcast🎙️ Also available on Spotify and Apple PodcastsConnect with Meghann#KismetStoriesPodcast #ManifestLove #LoveStories #HealingJourney #Serendipity #RealLove  #soulmatestory #Kismet #twinflame Chapters:00:00Introduction and background 04:55Exploring the power of intuition and manifestation05:55Therapy, Healing, and Setting Non-Negotiables09:30Intentional Dating13:53Setting the Intention that Called In the One15:53The Bold Move: A New Year's Invitation17:28Saying Yes and Leaning In20:30Life, love, and lessons 26:00Synchronicities33:31How to look for the signs 38:16How to connect with Meghann.Follow the show on Instagram: @kismetstoriespodcast Share your own Kismet moment: [email protected]🎧 Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app 🌟 If you enjoyed the episode, please consider leaving a review. It really helps!

Tony wasn’t looking for love—he was just on Twitter for the jokes. But a witty tweet caught his eye, sparking a connection from over 2,000 miles away. This is a modern love story about algorithms, timing, and the bourbon-fueled DM that changed everything.Featuring a Twitter-born romance that defies distance and expectations, this episode explores how being open to connection in the most unexpected places can change your life — and maybe even lead to love.Hear Tony talk music on Instagram @musicinthegluepodcast, on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.Chapters:00:00Introduction and Background03:17Life After Divorce06:11The DM that changed everything9:25Building a Relationship15:39Navigating Family and Friends21:17Lessons Learned from Past Relationships24:50Advice for Singles32:57About Tony's podcastFollow the show on Instagram: @kismetstoriespodcast Share your own Kismet moment: [email protected]🎧 Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app 🌟 If you enjoyed the episode, please consider leaving a review. It really helps!

Introducing Kismet: Real stories about finding true love in unexpected places.Follow the show on Instagram: @kismetstoriespodcast Share your own Kismet moment: [email protected]🎧 Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app 🌟 If you enjoyed the episode, please consider leaving a review. It really helps!