podcast
Chance Encounters
The unexpected connections you make while traveling can change your life: from romance that sparks at 30,000 feet to unlikely friendships that begin on the road. Chance Encounters, the podcast companion to the hit column on CNN.com from Francesca Street, chronicles incredible real-life stories of unforgettable travel connections.
English Channel: The Summer Spark That Never Ended
Chance Encounters
Aug 1, 2025
American Kerri Cunningham fell for Brit Dirk Stevens when they met as teenagers on vacation. They were each other’s first love but lived on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Then almost three decades later, they unexpectedly reunited.
Read more Chance Encounters by Francesca Street
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Episode photo: iStock/Getty Images
Episode Transcript
Francesca Street
00:00:02
'Imagine it's the summer of 1993. You're a teenager living in a beachside town in the Hamptons, pretty dreamy. But your parents insist on dragging you to Europe. Okay, dragged may sound like dramatic wording, but that is exactly how 14-year-old Kerri Cunningham saw the whole Europe idea at the time.
Kerri Cunningham
00:00:32
I was dreading the trip from a teenage point of view of, oh, it's taking away from my summer break and I wanna hang out with my friends and I have to go to Europe with my parents. Like spoiled brat, teenage attitude.
Francesca Street
00:00:46
'Looking back today, Kerri obviously recognizes this trip, which involved embarking first to the UK, then France, and culminating in a two-week-long bus tour around Italy, was a pretty amazing vacation. But Kerri really didn't want to go. She complained the whole way there. But her sulky attitude changed completely the moment she saw British teen Dirk Stevens.
Kerri Cunningham
00:01:21
Yeah, when I saw Dirk, it instantly got better. I remember thinking he was so handsome.
Dirk Stevens
00:01:28
To see some younger people on the group, and Kerri, obviously, in particular, it was, okay, this is going to be a bit more fun, hopefully, you know, and nice to not just be stuck talking to your parents, you know.
Francesca Street
00:01:42
'Kerri and Dirk crossed paths on a ship crossing the English Channel, taking them from England to France. As the boat crossed the water and the white cliffs of Dover retreated into the distance, Kerri's parents got chatting to Dirk's parents. Turns out they were also en route to the continent to embark on that same Italy bus tour. And Dirk, he was a reluctant teenage tag-along to a family holiday, just like Kerri. But then, they met eyes and everything started to look up.
Kerri Cunningham
00:02:20
Hugh Grant was really big at that time and he sort of had this like young Hugh Grant, I don't know, your hair or something. It was, I think being an American girl, it was like, you know, Hugh Grant was the guy.
Dirk Stevens
00:02:32
Yeah, it was the '90s. I mean, yeah, I mean it was just cool hanging out with an American girl as well.
Francesca Street
00:02:39
And this instant connection turned into a summer of first love.
Dirk Stevens
00:02:43
It was just so easy and comfortable.
Francesca Street
00:02:47
But little did Kerri and Dirk know that this summer romance wasn't just a fleeting teenage thing. This was going to change their lives forever.
Francesca Street
00:03:01
'I'm Francesca Street, CNN Travel Journalist, and this is Chance Encounters, a podcast about the incredible connections we make while traveling. This show is based on my series of online articles for CNN.com, where I interview ordinary people about their extraordinary travel-based love stories and tales of friendship. In this podcast series we're chronicling the summer loves that turned out to be more than just a vacation romance. Today we conclude our series with an epic love story with twists and turns that took decades to unfold.
Francesca Street
00:03:48
Let's head back to the summer of '93. Kerri and Dirk were bonding and their parents became fast friends too.
Dirk Stevens
00:03:55
'We all just got chatting, hit it off. And our parents, our dads are sort of similar guys, you know, take machines apart, make something new, build something, design something, have a bonfire. So that was quite fun to sort of make like-minded people from different locations across the world, isn't it?
Kerri Cunningham
00:04:17
Yeah, instant friendship. Our dads would be in a pub somewhere or grabbing a drink and moms would be shopping.
Dirk Stevens
00:04:24
So we ended up sort of going to sit together and then everyone had to sort of shuffle about. So listening to music together and stuff, you know...
Kerri Cunningham
00:04:31
On old headphones.
Dirk Stevens
00:04:34
Sharing Walkmen with headphones, you know, this is old days, really.
Francesca Street
00:04:41
Kerri enjoyed observing the way Dirk interacted with his family. Dirk's dad used a wheelchair, and Dirk was often the family member who'd help his dad navigate the cobbled streets of Italy.
Kerri Cunningham
00:04:52
'This 15-year-old who's pushing his dad all over Europe in this wheelchair and not complaining about it and getting on with it, but always see the bright side of everything.
Dirk Stevens
00:05:05
You know, deal with the cards you dealt and share the happiness rather than going around complaining about things in life.
Francesca Street
00:05:13
In the evenings, while the parents were deep in conversation, and Kerri's sisters were doing their own thing, Kerri and Dirk would steal time alone.
Dirk Stevens
00:05:22
You know, us two sort of sneaking off, I remember pictures of us with bottles of champagne that we'd taken at dinner or something.
Francesca Street
00:05:31
'At the end of the two-week tour, the Cunninghams and the Stevenses swapped addresses and they promised to stay in touch. There was already talk about getting together the following summer and so Kerri and Dirk started counting down the days.
Kerri Cunningham
00:05:49
I went back to New York and you were here and yeah, we would write letters to each other.
Dirk Stevens
00:05:55
'Yeah, we were in the penthouse for a while as well and the old long phone calls with the you know the old plugged-in phones when you had a really long extension lead so you could go and sit on the stairs or in the bathroom to try and get privacy.
Kerri Cunningham
00:06:09
Yeah. And my dad was very strict so I wasn't allowed to talk to many boys on the phone so Dirk was just one of the few.
Dirk Stevens
00:06:18
Very fortunate.
Francesca Street
00:06:21
'In the summer of '94, the Stevens' spent two weeks with the Cunninghams at their home on Long Island. For Kerri and Dirk, the 12-month countdown to their reunion only intensified their feelings for each other, and reuniting was everything they'd hoped it would be.
Dirk Stevens
00:06:39
And stayed at their house, went to the sea for a couple of days, didn't we? But that was where we were sort of, you know, missed each other for a year and, you know, desperate to see each other and a very exciting time.
Kerri Cunningham
00:06:54
Yeah, just kind of being teenagers in love, I guess. Kind of just accepting that we couldn't be together.
Dirk Stevens
00:07:06
But knowing that we'd get to see each other again at some point, I suppose.
Kerri Cunningham
00:07:10
Yeah, I kind of felt like, oh, we'll always...
Dirk Stevens
00:07:12
Yeah, we will always have this sort of thing, you know, isn't it? It was just like a connection that always stayed, didn't it? It's like a trust and a love that nothing really interrupted, do you know what I mean? Even though you had your own life in a separate place, that person still has that place in their heart for you, you know?
Francesca Street
00:07:38
Kerri and Dirk had to return to their normal lives. They went back to high school on the opposite side of the pond. Would their teenage summer romance survive the real world and graduation? We'll find out after a break.
Francesca Street
00:08:03
This is Chance Encounters. I'm Francesca Street. After their magical New York summer, Kerri and Doug continued to write letters and spoke to each other on the phone. But as they finished up high school, this communication gradually slowed down and their calls dropped off almost completely when they graduated. Staying in touch required time and effort.
Dirk Stevens
00:08:28
So it was always like, oh, you know, a few emails a year, just keeping in touch and how's everyone? And you know people just popping your head sometimes, don't they?
Francesca Street
00:08:38
Then, in Kerri's first year of college, her father was diagnosed with ALS, a progressive neurodegenerative disease. When Kerri was 19, he passed away. This was a devastating loss for Kerri and the Cunningham family. The Stevens' were also heartbroken.
Kerri Cunningham
00:08:57
My dad died and I was supposed to go to Paris with some girlfriends and I just, I didn't have the money. I was grieving. It was just, you know, I was 19.
Francesca Street
00:09:07
Through the grapevine, Dirk's mother heard about Kerri's canceled vacation. She immediately offered a suggestion to Kerri's mum. She'd love to take Kerri and Dirk to Paris together.
Kerri Cunningham
00:09:20
'And it happened to be Valentine's Day week. When we were there, yeah. And it was, you know, very romantic and we were in our mid-twenties, I guess.
Francesca Street
00:09:28
Looking back today, Kerri and Dirk reckoned Dirk's mum was encouraging their connection.
Kerri Cunningham
00:09:34
And I remember his mom saying, well, I've got two hotel rooms. You can stay with me or you can stay it with Dirk. And I was like, obviously I want to stay with Dirk. She was giving us an opportunity to see how well we connected, I think, and how well, what a good couple we were, but she saw the potential in us, I think that we didn't see.
Dirk Stevens
00:10:00
Yeah, well it was just giving us the opportunity when we were at that stage where we couldn't have the money ourselves to do that and made that lovely promise for us, didn't she?
Kerri Cunningham
00:10:11
Yeah it was very, so generous.
Francesca Street
00:10:14
The trip was perfect, but it also felt kind of bittersweet. Kerri was grieving her father. Some part of her also saw Paris as a farewell to her teenage love for Dirk. As an adult, she felt the barriers of them ever actually being together even more acutely.
Kerri Cunningham
00:10:36
You know, I have a job in New York, I can't like, it just seems impossible. You're just like, there's no way this could ever work. We're too far away. We have, it seemed very expensive and not possible. Yeah, it didn't seem possible.
Francesca Street
00:10:49
After Paris, Kerri went back to New York and Dirk returned to the UK. As they moved through their 20s, Kerri and Dirk both made life choices that cemented them on different paths.
Dirk Stevens
00:11:03
You know, I ended up different girlfriends and things and ended up with having a baby and later getting married and having three children. And then I got divorced.
Francesca Street
00:11:15
Meanwhile, Kerri met and fell in love with a fellow Long Islander, Dean. Dirk's parents attended Kerri's wedding to Dean in the summer of 2010.
Dirk Stevens
00:11:25
All the families were still sort of connected.
Francesca Street
00:11:29
In 2015, Dirk's daughter was diagnosed with a rare genetic neurological and development disorder. And then in 2016, his mother died suddenly. And that same year, Kerri's husband Dean was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor. Dirk reached out to Kerri when he heard the news, offered his support from afar. But Kerri was swept up in hospital appointments, caring for her husband, and processing the inevitable loss that was to come.
Kerri Cunningham
00:11:59
20 years after my dad, I just felt like this is happening again. And I remember looking at my mom and my sister and just saying, I can't do this. But you do it, you find the strength and you do.
Francesca Street
00:12:15
Kerri's husband Dean died in 2017. In the aftermath of Dean's passing, Kerri says her world turned upside down. She didn't know how to process this loss or what to do next. A couple of years passed in a blur. And then one day, her aunt suggested a trip to Ireland to just get away. And around that same time, Dirk emailed, asking Kerri how she was doing. For the first time in a long time, she felt like she had a bit more head space to reply. So she mentioned heading to Dublin.
Kerri Cunningham
00:12:53
And he said, I don't have work that week and dad's available. Dad and I could come meet you guys in Ireland. And I thought, oh God, he's still married. He's got kids.
Francesca Street
00:13:06
But unbeknownst to Kerri, Dirk was separated from his wife. The couple had gone through a tough time for a long time, and they were now in the process of getting divorced. Dirk had moved in with his father, but he didn't mention any of this to Kerri in his emails. Dirk didn't want to seem like he was trying to overshadow Kerri losing Dean, and he had no intentions when he got back in touch, other than he'd been trying to reconnect with old friends in the wake of his marriage breaking down. Plus, he knew his father would really love seeing Kerri. Neither Kerri nor Dirk will ever forget the moment they reconnected in Dublin Airport, 17 years after they'd last seen each other.
Dirk Stevens
00:13:46
Yeah, the second we saw each other in our eyes.
Kerri Cunningham
00:13:48
I was just like sobbing and just like hugging him was... When I hugged him, I felt like I was home.
Francesca Street
00:14:03
Later in Dublin, Kerri and Dirk toured the Guinness factory, they went out for dinner. Their family members were all in tow and it felt a bit like the summer they'd first met, touring Europe in 1993. Like they were teenagers again. And those teenage feelings of summer love also came brushing back.
Dirk Stevens
00:14:22
So we're in Ireland and having all these feelings for each other and, you know, we're just having fun and getting on with it. But everywhere we went, every person we met in a pub, just having a conversation in a queue, they're like, oh my God, how long have you two been together? You're like the nicest couple we've ever met. We're like no, we not, we were old friends and we just came with my dad and her aunt and you know the time we spent was just perfect and just what we both needed. After Kerri and her aunt left. And I was sitting with my dad before we went to the airport and I was saying, dad, I feel really strongly about this, but Kerri, I need to do something.
Francesca Street
00:15:03
'So Dirk took a leap of faith. He told Kerri he loved her. He asked if they could maybe make long-distance work to finally embark on their connection that had been decades in the making. For Kerri, this was a decisive moment. It was scary and unknown. But she felt she should take a leap in faith into a life with Dirk. She knew she loved him too. Today, six years since they reunited in Ireland, Kerri and Dirk are a couple. Now in their 40s, living life together as a team. Kerri spends her time across the Atlantic and loves spending time with Dirk's children.
Kerri Cunningham
00:15:46
I didn't think I was capable of loving someone else's kids as much as I do. It's been a real gift. And after Dean died, I said I'm not afraid of anything because I feel like I've been through the worst thing possible. And so I thought if this doesn't work, then it doesn't, but at least, you know, at least we had a good, you know, when I saw him, it was we always had fun, we'd be laughing and you can't be sad forever.
Francesca Street
00:16:24
In the time since they reunited, Kerri and Dirk have helped each other rebuild their lives, embrace the present, and embark on a new future together.
Dirk Stevens
00:16:35
Yeah, so we kind of got attracted, like magnetized to each other then.
Kerri Cunningham
00:16:39
Yeah, like the universe was like, this is...
Dirk Stevens
00:16:40
It was like, how weird is that you've sent me that and I've sent you this and...
Francesca Street
00:16:44
And naturally, their families were absolutely thrilled when they got together. Kerri's mum said it was written in the stars. Dirk's father recently passed away, but before he died, he told Kerri she was the best thing that happened to his son.
Dirk Stevens
00:17:04
He was excited for us. I wish my mum would have seen us finally getting together.
Kerri Cunningham
00:17:12
She played a big part in it. Yeah, I don't know. I think there is always something guiding us. We end up where we're meant to be.
Dirk Stevens
00:17:23
Everyone's got someone out there
Kerri Cunningham
00:17:25
I hope so.
Dirk Stevens
00:17:27
Get out of the house.
Kerri Cunningham
00:17:28
Yeah, go on a trip with your parents when you're a teenager, even if you don't want to.
Francesca Street
00:17:38
I feel like it's a good inspirational story for kids who don't want to go.
Kerri Cunningham
00:17:42
Teenagers don't want to go with their parents. Yeah, so it kind of like gives your parents like, oh, okay, they weren't that bad. Enjoying the journey. That's how we started. We started out on a journey and we met each other and Then we just continuing
Dirk Stevens
00:18:05
Be open to everything that presents itself, isn't it? I mean, I'm not saying, like, say yes to everything, but go with your gut, you know? And just trust your instincts and let the universe take you along, you know, it will guide you where you're meant to go.
Francesca Street
00:18:28
'Thank you to Kerri Cunningham and Dirk Stevens for sharing their Chance Encounter. And thank you for joining us for our Summer Love series. If you missed any of the six episodes, you can go back and take that journey anytime. And if you want to catch up on season one, you can check out all of those amazing tales of travel connections, too. If you have your own chance encounter to share, I'd love to hear it. You can share your story with CNN in the contact form linked in our episode description. This is Chance Encounters, reported, hosted, and written by me, Francesca Street. Dan Bloom is our showrunner and co-writer. Sofía Sánchez and Kyra Dahring are the producers. Dan Dzula is technical director, and Matt Dempsey is technical production manager. Steve Lickteig is Executive Producer of CNN Podcasts. For more Chance Encounters, check out cnn.com/travel. CNN Travel's global editor is Barry Neild. Special thanks to producers Lori Galarreta, Felicia Patinkin, Graelyn Brashear, Haley Thomas, Lauren Kim, Grace Walker, and Jesse Remedios. Jamus Andrest created the artwork for this show. We had support from Alex Manasseri, Mark Duffy, Robert Mathers, Joey Salvia, Jon Dianora, Leni Steinhardt, Lisa Namerow, David Allan and the team at CNN Travel. Wendy Brundige is CNN Digital's SVP of Content Strategy. Chance Encounters is a production of CNN Podcasts, thank you for listening.
