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Woman gets dumped by fiancé and gets the perfect revenge

Katy Collins made headlines for travelling the world after being dumped by her university sweetheart three months before their wedding

Olivia Petter
Monday 24 July 2017 12:28 BST
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A 32-year-old woman dubbed the “backpacking Bridget Jones” has given birth to a baby daughter.

Katy Collins launched her blog "Not Wed Or Dead" after being dumped by her fiancé, Thomas Soutter, just three months before their wedding in May 2012.

Collins and Soutter met as students at Salford University and moved in together after graduating. They became engaged a few years later.

But before the pair could affirm their nuptials at a wedding that reportedly cost £25,000, Soutter confessed that he had been seeing another woman, after nine years with Collins.

“I decided to ditch weddings for wanderlust after being jilted”, the former PR manager explained on her website. “Feeling heartbroken, confused and a little disillusioned with where life was heading I made the brave decision to quit my job in public relations, sold my house, my car and anything else that wouldn’t fit into a large backpack before jetting off on my own.”

After trekking through the Himalayas, climbing volcanos in Chile and sleeping in a Thai jungle, Collins’ story went viral, with newspapers across the globe sharing her story and printing pictures of the jilted bride on her travels.

She has since turned her recognition into commercial success, publishing a series of bestselling novels titled The Lonely Hearts Travel Club, inspired by her travels.

In January she married John Skiddle, 31, a former Liverpool Echo reporter, in an intimate ceremony in Coventry, documenting the occasion in a blog post titled “The perfect wedding I never thought I’d have”.

Collins wore a £200 high street bridal dress and the reception took place at a local pub.

Skiddle was one of the first journalists to break Collins’ inspiring story.

The pair welcomed baby Everleigh Gray two months ago. “She already has a passport and we’re really excited to take her on our next adventure,” she said in a YouTube video.

“I feel like I’m living in a real life rom-com, from being jobless, single and skint I was able to share how I survived that first trip, made a life in France, continued to see the world (now ticking off 40 countries), my dreams coming true as I became a published author, got to give you guys a peek into my wedding and even reveal I was pregnant on these very pages."

"Welcome to the world Everleigh. No one, especially not me, could have predicted how you came to being in my life but I am so bloody grateful that you are. I promise to show you the world and can’t wait to start this new adventure with you and your daddy by my side,” she wrote in a post on her website.

The fourth instalment of the Lonely Hearts Travel Club, Chasing The Sun, hits bookshelves on Thursday July 27.

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