A British nurse has broken her silence after learning that her fiancé had met another woman while on a cruise in Australia — a holiday romance saga that later went viral online and, she says, left her devastated.
Natalie Green had been eagerly counting down the days until her partner of eight years, 41-year-old Liam McAuley, returned home in August following a visit to Australia to spend time with relatives.
Just three weeks earlier, she had seen him off at the airport with a goodbye kiss. During his time away, the couple stayed in daily contact, with McAuley sharing updates from his trip Down Under — including details of a nine-day Whitsundays cruise he took with his mother.
But the mother-of-one said she was blindsided when she came across videos posted by an Australian woman, who claimed she had fallen for McAuley during a fast-moving cruise ship romance.
‘I’m hurt, angry and absolutely heartbroken to say the least,’ Ms Green wrote in a post on social media.
‘He didn’t even have the respect to come home and talk to me face to face.’
Ms Green only found out about Mr McAuley’s holiday fling after Sydney business owner Sammi, 44, started posting about her dating life on board a cruise holiday she had taken with her son Jett.
Sammi had sworn off men for 14 years after Jett had been diagnosed with an aggressive brain cancer, but when she met a handsome stranger at the ship’s nightclub she was smitten.
Sammi says she had sworn off dating for 14 years after son Jett was diagnosed with an aggressive brain cancer, until she met Liam McAuley on the cruise and was smitten
Ms Green only discovered Mr McAuley’s holiday romance after Sydney business owner Sammi (pictured) began posting about her dating life during a cruise holiday.
Dubbing him ‘Mr UK’, Sammi claimed he was the man of her dreams. She said she was overjoyed when he cancelled his flight home to spend another week with her after the ship docked.
But unknown to her, Mr McAuley was already in a long-term relationship and told his fiancée he had been offered a job in the mines and would be staying another week.
At the same time, Sammi’s videos began going viral, with thousands of people from across the globe waiting for the next instalment on their long distance love story.
It was then that Ms Green and her sister Aimee were sent a link to a video montage featuring Mr McAuley in a series of loved up snaps with Sammi.
‘My sister is absolutely shattered into a thousand pieces, her heart is completely ripped out to see this,’ said Aimee.
She said she’d ‘never really taken’ to Mr McAuley, but added: ‘You tolerate someone for someone you love. Everyone tolerates him.
‘But my sister is the salt of the earth type and she is so kind-hearted and pure.’
The sisters began leaving comments on Sammi’s videos warning her that Mr McAuley was already engaged
Ms Green’s sister Aimee was sent a link to a video montage featuring Mr McAuley in a series of loved-up photographs with Sammi
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Mr McAuley was already in a long term relationship when he met Sammi
Back in Australia, Sammi read everything and immediately confronted him.
‘I woke Liam up and at first, he denied it but then he told me it was true but complicated,’ she said. ‘I told him to pack his things and go.
‘He was already leaving that day anyway so I drove him to the train station in silence. He kissed me and said, ‘I have never loved anyone as much as I loved you’ and he left.
‘My heart wanted it to work but my brain knew it couldn’t.
‘He is gone now and I have been humiliated online and people think I knew – or at least feel I should have seen the warning signs, but there weren’t any.’
Ms Green has since posted a selfie to TikTok insisting she is ready to move on.
‘Life goes on,’ she wrote. ‘Have I been hurt, cheated and lied to? Yes. I’ve cried, I’ve raged, I’ve hit the bottom.
‘But will I let this get the better of me? Absolutely not. One day at a time but I have got this.’
Ms Green has since posted a selfie to TikTok claiming she is ready to move on
Sammi claimed she was ready to move on in a tearful post and told her followers the relationship was over
Mr McAuley, now back in the UK, told the Daily Mail he had handled the situation badly but he still believes they can make it work.
‘Sammi knows how sorry I am for how it all ended and we both know what we feel is real,’ he said. ‘It will take some work to get back to where we were.
‘I’m also sorry for hurting [my fiancée], even if in my head it had been over for a while but the way I have been portrayed by her family and friends is downright vindictive.
‘Sammi changed my view on what happiness can be like and I have to live with the fact I ruined it. I’m not sure what the future holds but I’m along for the ride.’
Sammi has now said she was ready to move on in a tearful post and told followers the relationship was over.
She apologised to Ms Green and said Mr McAuley had done ‘a bad thing’ but was not ‘a bad person’.
Sammi said she was aware of the criticism she has had since going public and added: ‘I’m well aware of the things that are circulating about me.
‘But I started my page a year ago in the hope of inspiring woman who were going through what I was going through, to be able to pick up and just keep moving.’