A woman has shared how she finally found love in her 50s after going on 50 first dates.
Yasmin Ibrahim from Richmond says she has always been “terribly unlucky in love”, but always held out hope that she would eventually find the right guy.
But after several “narcissistic relationships”, the now 53-year-old felt “desperately unhappy”.
Not understanding why the men she was attracting were constantly unavailable, she decided to go on 50 first dates in six months to figure out her real wants and needs.
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After finishing the 50 dates, Yasmin realised the right person for her would be different to the failed matches – and she soon matched with Jak, 57.
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The pair instantly hit it off and, a year later, are engaged and going from strength to strength.
“I was terribly unlucky in love before meeting Jak,” Yasmin, a dating and relationship intuitive, told What’sTheJam.com.
“I had a series of very narcissistic relationships, which just left me feeling desperately unhappy.
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“I just could not understand why I kept attracting these types of men.
“The love I have now is so different to anything I have experienced before.
“Jak is totally unconditional with me.
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“He has experienced the good, the crazy and the lovely with me and he never judges, he is here for it all.”
But Yasmin says it’s been a tough journey to get to where she is now.
She said: “I often felt like the type of person I wanted didn’t exist.
“Every time I used a dating app, I was attracting men who didn’t want a relationship or didn’t have the ability to communicate consistently.
“So I went on 50 first dates to discover what I actually liked and loved about men and if, what I deeply desired, existed.
“I learnt a lot mostly, that there are so many kind and generous men out there that want relationships – they just weren’t my man.
“Until Jak.”
The couple met on Fitfy, a fitness dating app.
Both big into fitness, Jak swiped on Yasmin due to a picture of her doing a headstand, something which he’d always wanted to master the art of.
She said: “Meeting Jak has been the best thing that has happened in a long time.
“He is committed as I am to this relationship and it was clear very quickly that this was my forever person.“
The 53-year-old believes that the key to their romance slotting into place was the fact that the pair’s slow and steady speed “created the perfect foundation for our relationship.”
Previously, Yasmin was married twice and has one daughter, but Jak has never been married, has one child and is a grandfather.
She said: “We weren’t incessantly messaging each other or spending every moment together as my mother had passed away the month before and I needed time to go slow.
“He was patient and continually told me that he wasn’t going anywhere and made his intentions very clear.
“When I burnt out, he took me away to Turkey and took care of me.
“When I pushed him away due to grief, he gave me time.”
In February 2023, just seven months after their first date, Jak asked Yasmin to marry him.
She said: “Jak told me he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me.
“Soon after, just before what I thought was a family meal at Scott’s in Richmond, he proposed to me at home, captured by my daughter.
“The best part of my relationship with Jak is that everything is on the table.
“We don’t second guess each other.
This is the only relationship I have had where I experience complete trust.”
Despite finding her partner later on in life, Yasmin doesn’t wish that the couple had met sooner.
Instead, she views this as a blessing in disguise.
She added: “I know for a fact, it wouldn’t have worked had we met 20 years earlier.
“I was not in a good place and he is such a kind and generous man, I would not have appreciated him.
“It’s also so freeing as our children are grown up and we have time to invest in each other and our future plans.
“Society has a formula that by the time you reach your 30s you should be engaged, married and at least at the point of having children.
“It doesn’t feel good for the modern world and puts unnecessary pressure on dating and relationships.
“I have many friends and clients finding love in their late 40s, 50s and even in their 60’s.
“It’s a great time to find love, with more experience comes a deeper understanding of love.”
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