‘I thought, what the hell have I done?’: the people who moved abroad for love – and regretted it

Tim Prior, 50, disaster management. Moved from Australia to Switzerland. Photograph: Ruben Hollinger/The Guardian

I met my wife in Queensland in 2001. She’s from Bern, but was in Australia to study marine science. She needed help collecting fish for her project, and had heard that I was handy with a spear gun. We hit it off straight away, and began our romance on semi‑deserted islands near the Great Barrier Reef.

We went on to make a life together. My wife liked Australia and eventually got citizenship, but after we had our first son she wanted to be near her family.