Experience: I married my partner four times

Helen Paris (right) and Leslie Hill married each other four times. Photograph: Peter Flude/The Guardian

The first time I saw Leslie, it was 1994; she was on stage, delivering a spoken word piece at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London. I was in the audience and it really was love at first sight.

We’re both performance artists and, though I didn’t know it then, Leslie had seen me in a show in Glasgow that year and experienced a similar flash. Her girlfriend had nudged her in the ribs and whispered, “You fancy her!” I thought about her a lot, but we were both in relationships. A year later, we were performing in the same season back at the ICA and met properly for the first time. There was definitely a spark.