Our story
Our story did not begin with one perfect meeting. It began with missed encounters, a telephone call, different cities and a connection that kept finding its way back.
How did your paths first cross?
Before we properly spoke, Ishaq had already tried to introduce us. Hammed had also visited Imisi 3D, where I was working, but somehow we never met. Ishaq had always wanted to connect us, but I was completely against matchmaking, so I was not interested.
Our paths had come close to crossing before we even realised it. I had been to Imisi 3D, but we never saw each other. Ishaq clearly knew something that we did not know yet.
When did you first speak?
We first spoke in December 2021. Ishaq asked me to collect a Meta headset from Hammed. Unfortunately, we could not meet in person, so we only spoke over the phone.
I was captivated by her voice during that first call. However, because she wore the hijab, I did not want to make assumptions about whether she would be interested in getting to know me, so I did not pursue anything at the time.
When did you finally meet?
We finally met in person in 2022 at Meta's Africa No Filter event. It was good to finally meet after our earlier telephone conversation, but the timing was still not right, so we spoke and then continued with our separate lives.
It was good to finally meet after our earlier telephone conversation, but the timing was not right. We talked and then continued with our separate lives.
What brought you back together?
Around the first quarter of 2023, Ishaq linked us together again because he and I were building something and needed Hammed’s expertise. It gave us a natural reason to work together and reconnect without forcing anything.
I was brought in because the team needed my expertise, and what started as a work connection reopened the conversation between us in a very natural way.
Did you meet again after that?
Yes. We met again in Laval, France, in April 2023. I went in place of Ishaq, since he was Hammed's cofounder, and SwiftXR had been invited to receive an award in Laval. I was in London, so it was the easiest way to attend and help out. We were both navigating different personal chapters, so it was simply another meeting between two people whose paths kept crossing.
That Laval meeting reminded us that our paths kept crossing even when life looked different for both of us.
When did things begin to change?
By the end of 2023, I had just come out of an eight-month situationship that began in 2022, so I was still in a delicate place emotionally. Hammed was also in a relationship from late 2023 into the first quarter of 2024, around February or March, so we both felt it was better to slow down and avoid mixed feelings. By the start of 2024, I was secretly praying about it because I already liked him again, even though we no longer talked like we used to.
We cared enough to pause before anything became messy. The timing was not right, and we wanted to handle it with honesty and grace while each of us finished our own situations.
When did you officially start dating?
On September 4, 2024, while we were together in Paris, France, we decided to stop calling it just friendship and officially begin dating.
After several years of almost-meetings, reconnections and imperfect timing, Paris became the place where we finally chose each other.
What happened next?
Shortly after we started dating, I travelled to Nigeria in October 2024 and returned in April 2025. Hammed came to the UK in September 2025 for his MBA, and when I saw him there it felt like we were finally in one place. Since then, we have been cutting the distance little by little.
That period taught us patience, communication and consistency. Coming to the UK for my MBA made the relationship feel more settled, and we kept choosing each other across every trip and every season.
What comes next?
By late 2025 and into 2026, we officially started speaking to each other's parents over the phone. It has been such a good time getting to know the family, and we are looking forward to everyone finally meeting for our introduction on August 11.
Getting to know the family has been beautiful, and the conversations have made everything feel even more real. We are excited for the official introduction on August 11.
Some stories begin in a single moment. Ours kept finding its way back until the timing was finally right.
A chronological photo timeline of the moments that kept bringing us back together.
Our first telephone conversation - all because of a Meta headset.
We finally met in person, but the timing still was not ours.
Laval brought our paths across each other again.
Ishaq brought us together again for work, and the connection started to reopen.
By early 2024, the quiet feelings were getting harder to ignore.
The day friendship became a relationship.
Every trip and every visit made the distance feel a little smaller until September 2025.
He came to the UK for his MBA, and it felt like we were finally in one place.
We started speaking with each other's parents over the phone, and everyone will officially meet on August 11.
