I found my future husband inside the METAVERSE – and we first met as virtual avatars

MOVE over Tinder – love is in the virtual air of the metaverse, where a couple first hooked up as avatars.

Now, Brits Eilir Roberts, 32 and Marc Charlton, 36, are engaged with plans to tie the knot next year.

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The virtual romance started when Roberts – an intensive care doctor in the real world – bought an Oculus headset as an escapism from life’s stresses.

Then one day a “dark haired, bearded avatar with a pink hoodie” caught his eye.

“I could hear him chatting with other avatars, and was so impressed by his confidence and presence,” he told the NY Post.

“It took me a few days to build up the courage to actually speak to him; when I finally did there was an instant connection.”

Before long, they were spending hours together in the virtual world and eventually moved to more traditional means of communication, like texting and social media.

After two months of online flirting and 3D nightclubs, the pair decided to meet in person.

Roberts took a five-hour train from his home in North Wales, all the way to London-based personal trainer Charlton.

“As soon as I saw him waiting for me at the train station car park, the same connection we had in VR was there,” he said.

“I fell in love with him all over again!”

Charlton added: “I felt like I completely knew him given the fact that I saw how he interacted with other people and had fun experiences together in the metaverse.

“So when I met him it didn’t feel too different, other than that I was looking at a real person, not a digital version of a person.”

Charlton did the journey to North Wales for their next rendez-vous in December 2020.

But with a coronavirus lockdown, the love birds thought it was best to see it through together.

Fast forward to October 2021 and the couple have decided to get married, with a date set for September next year.

And of course, it wouldn’t be the same without a VR element to it.

So they’re also planning to do an event in the metaverse to celebrate with virtual friends there too.

Charlton is convinced things worked out between them because they met through the metaverse instead of a dating app.

And they still go on “nights out” in the metaverse, connecting themselves from separate rooms.

“I really got to know this person through VR,” he said.

Since matching up, the two have come up with their own metaverse dating service called DatesVR.

“We need to help other people make wonderful, meaningful connections,” Charlton recently told The Sun.

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