Sometimes the love of your life has been in front of you for years, hiding in plain sight.

"We worked together for years as mates," said Gemma Doughty, 33, "even though we didn't get off to the best of starts."

Her partner Ian Greenland, 33, explained: "I was her boss at Komedia here in Brighton, and she came in for her first shift in a terrible bad mood. I had to have a word."

The pair worked behind the bar of the Komedia together as friends and colleagues for several years, but a moment of lowered inhibitions led to true love.

"It was jetlag to be honest," said Ian, jokily.

"I came home from a long flight, I hadn't had much sleep, and we ended up staying up late and talking and spending all night together.

"Afterwards I said to her, 'so have you been feeling this for a while too then?', and she had."

Gemma blushed and smiled, and pointed to their infant in his pushchair, wrapped up warm against the February cold.

She said: "And now we've been together two years, we've never been happier and there’s a baby too.

"Little Rafa has just turned one month old. We're exhausted but we're so happy," she beamed.