Kyra (L) and Briony (R) were brought together by heartbreak (Picture: Supplied)

At 23 years old, Briony FitzGerald was on the cusp of an adventure.

She was about to follow her boyfriend, Ollie*, to New York, where he was pursuing a career as a model.

Not only that, but she’d be living with one of Ollie’s friends, Daniel*, who he’d met on the modelling scene, and his girlfriend Kyra, who was originally from Texas, and had recently moved to New York after college.

‘I was so excited,’ says Briony, who is originally from Brisbane, Australia. ‘I was madly in love, I’d never lived abroad before and I was ready to take a leap of faith. I couldn’t wait to get out there.

‘I didn’t know anyone in New York, so living with another couple felt like I’d have a ready-made friendship group.

‘Kyra was about the same age as me. I looked at her Instagram and she seemed like someone I could be friends with. It was all falling into place.’

They finally met in real life for the first time in 2017 (Picture: Supplied)

Daniel and Kyra, already in NYC, started house hunting and one Friday night they signed a lease for the four of them on their dream, two-bedroom apartment. The Friends/How I Met Your Mother/Seinfeld fantasy was well underway.

‘Because of the time difference, we woke up on that Saturday morning to lots of excited Tweets, saying we finally had a house,’ says Briony. ‘It was really happening.

‘I was ready to celebrate – I thought Ollie and I would spend the day together, making fun plans for our new life in New York.’

But Briony, now 33, says her boyfriend was acting strangely. ‘He just seemed quiet and withdrawn, I couldn’t work out what was going on.’

And then, Ollie dropped the bombshell. ‘He turned to me and said: “Bri, I think I want to go alone.”

‘I was utterly floored. I ran to the toilet because I thought I was going to throw up. We’d literally signed a lease hours earlier, and now he was breaking up with me.

‘I hadn’t seen it coming at all. I called my sister who came to get me, but I was just in a daze.’

Their first walk along the Brooklyn Bridge is one of Briony’s favourite memories (Picture: Supplied)

The next day, Ollie called Briony. ‘Nothing had changed,’ she says. ‘He just said that he wanted to be alone.

‘That night, I stayed in the apartment. Ollie walked out, shut the door behind him, and I never saw him again.’

With her big move in tatters, a heartbroken Briony eventually moved back in with her parents. ‘I was so, so sad. I knew there was no way I could go to New York – it was his city – so what was I going to do now? It felt like a disaster.’

Briony says she left Ollie to pass on the news to Daniel and Kyra. ‘I think I just blocked all that stuff out,’ she says. ‘It was too much to deal with, and they were his friends – it was his mess to clean up.’

Briony booked a trip to Spain and Portugal – a sunny distraction from her heartbreak. ‘Kyra reached out and texted me when I was there, saying how much she’d been looking forward to living with me. I thought it was sweet, but I figured I’d probably never hear from her again.’

But about a month later, in a strange coincidence, Briony got a message from Kyra. ‘Daniel has broken up with me,’ it read. ‘I couldn’t believe it,’ says Briony. ‘I immediately suggested we have a video call.’

That call between the girls became the first of many. ‘I was still hurting, and I took comfort in knowing that she could understand exactly what I was going through. It was strange to know that Ollie and Daniel had still gone along with everything as planned – moving in together in New York, but without us.

‘Like me, Kyra had no suspicions or warning that her relationship was going to end.

Kyra came to visit Briony in London (Picture: Supplied)

‘We’d compare notes about we were feeling, and messaged nearly every day. We’d send each others those “good morning” and “good night” texts – the ones you really miss when you’re newly single.

‘We’d often talk about how annoying it was that, with her in New York and me in Australia, we couldn’t drown our sorrows together!’

Briony says the pair became close friends. ‘I appreciated how open and kind-hearted Kyra was,’ says Briony. ‘We’re similar in a lot of ways – we’re both romantics that will do anything for love!’

Despite Briony’s relationship ending, she still wanted a change of scene. A friend, who was living in the UK, suggested she moved to London – and she ended up doing just that.

‘It was another thing that bonded Kyra and I,’ she explains. ‘We were both living in these big, new cities.

‘But we had lots of other shared interests too – we’re both into tarot, astrology and crystals. We love trying new food, and have the same taste in art and film.’

Slowly but surely, Briony says she was able to move on from the break up. ‘Kyra and I drifted a little bit,’ says Briony. ‘We didn’t need to lean on each other quite so much.’

The girls spent time together in London this year (Picture: Supplied)

But in 2017 – four years after their fateful breakups – Briony was on holiday in America. ‘It seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally meet her.

‘Seeing her in real life for the first time was strange because I hadn’t really noticed how much we look alike!

‘She spent the day showing me around her city. We walked along the Brooklyn Bridge and we just couldn’t believe that we were actually together. It’s one of my favourite memories with her. It felt so natural and normal.

‘She’s so warm and talkative. She’s got typical Texas Southern hospitality – there was so much food and drink on offer!’

Since then, Briony and Kyra’s friendship has gone from strength to strength.

‘She came to visit me in London in 2019 and we just had the best time. We’d chat for hours on walks through Hampstead Heath or just mooch about the city and go for cocktails.

Briony says the girls will ‘always be connected’ (Picture: Supplied)

‘The pandemic was tough but we would FaceTime a lot – we were both away from our families so it was a big support being able to talk to her.’

The girls’ most recent reunion was in March this year, when Kyra came to London again. ‘We will always be connected,’ says Briony.

‘We’ve grown up on other sides of the world but we’re so similar, and we love sharing our story.

‘At the time, the break up felt like my life was ruined. But looking back we were so young, and Daniel wanted to do his own thing. It turns out, it was the best thing that could have happened to me.

‘It’s amazing that something so wonderful came out of such a crappy situation.’

*Names have been changed

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