Before the pandemic, Bethany was travelling around the UK regularly for her job with an educational charity. “I was staying at lots of unglamorous hotels,” she laughs. “It was a lovely job, but quite lonely and I couldn’t join any evening classes as I was away so much.” She began looking for online groups and soon found a Twitter community for fans of the TV show Good Omens, which she’d been watching. “I discovered this lovely group of people and found out there would be a small convention for the show’s fans to raise money for an Alzheimer’s charity.”
The convention was being run by Rachael, who was based in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. “I had recently moved back to the UK after working in the US and Australia,” she says. Once home, she found a job in education content, but struggled to build a network of friends locally. “When this new show came out I wondered if there might be some interest in a convention. I’d organised them before for Star Trek and Harry Potter events. I thought people could come, dress up, play games and meet like-minded people.”
She found others who were interested through a Twitter call out, and set up a group online. Bethany was impressed by Rachael’s commitment. “She seemed invested in creating a warm atmosphere,” she says. “I liked being in a group where I could be geeky and proud.” She offered to help with the planning, which Rachael was grateful for.
In July 2019, the pair met in London to take some photos for the event. After the convention, they met up regularly for theatre trips and their friendship continued to grow. “I was living in Peterborough with my mum, and Rachael was in Beaconsfield, so it meant we’d stay with each other for a few days at a time,” says Bethany.
Although they shared a strong bond, neither ever imagined anything romantic would happen between them. “I’ve had relationships with all genders before and I found Bethany attractive, but I thought she was straight,” says Rachael. In 2019, Bethany was coming towards the end of her marriage, and had never considered the possibility of being with a woman. But after splitting from her husband, she found herself wondering if there could be a spark with Rachael. “At first, I wondered if I was feeling attracted to her because she was being so kind to me at a difficult time,” says Bethany. “But then I realised it was definitely different to other friendships. I’d never felt such a strong attachment.”
In early 2020, they shared a kiss. They went on holiday together shortly after, returning to the UK during lockdown. Making a snap decision, they agreed to move into a flat in Milton Keynes together so they didn’t have to be apart. “Before that, we hadn’t spent more than a few days together but we got on so well,” says Bethany. “We then moved to Heacham on the north Norfolk coast in 2021.” In the early days of their relationship, they bonded over watching Netflix’s Tiger King and old box sets, but since then they’ve enjoyed travelling, going to restaurants and starting up the Good Omens convention again.
They married in July 2022 with a Good Omens-themed wedding. “We’d proposed to each other at the same time at a bandstand in Milton Keynes, which is an iconic location in the show,” says Bethany. Sadly, her mum became unwell with cancer a few weeks before the wedding, and died shortly afterwards. “She managed to watch it online holding a glass of champagne,” says Bethany. “Rachael was then hospitalised with complications from asthma and Covid, so it was a hard time for both of us.”
The pair relied on each other to get through it. “It’s the support you don’t even know you need, like Rachael helping me to clean my mum’s house after she died. It means you don’t worry about things you can’t focus on.” Later the same year, Rachael made the decision to change careers and became a teacher, which Bethany fully supported.
Rachael loves how kind and thoughtful her partner is. “Bethany always wants to talk about things to understand how I’m feeling,” she says. Bethany describes her wife as “joyful”. “She’s totally true to herself and when she laughs, everyone else laughs, too. Coming home to someone who will make you feel better if you’ve had a bad day and celebrate the good times is the best thing.”
