IT IS the love story that has been compared to a fairytale.

Claire and Clive Arnold's romance has heartbreak, a lot of magic and now a "happy ever after" ending.

The couple tied the knot on the Princes Caroline at Ocean Village, Southampton, yesterday after being apart for 39 years.

The couple fell in love as teenagers after they met at the Hamble Club but were dragged apart four years later and forced to live completely separate lives.

Their world was turned upside down when Clive's family decided to emigrate to Australia. Claire was invited to move with them but didn't want to leave her family.

Both married different partners on opposite sides of the world.

Claire had three children with her first husband Stuart and Clive had a son.

When Claire and her second husband Dick Barrell decided to visit Australia, Dick suggested that his wife should try to get in contact again with Clive.

After 26 years apart the pair met again for the first time.

They kept in contact over the years and when Dick was diagnosed with leukaemia and died four years ago, Clive supported Claire throughout her grieving process and slowly became the one to make her smile again.

Divorced from his wife for 12 years, Clive enjoyed having Claire in his life again.

During a Skype call in 2013 Clive said: "I think I still love you, I need to fly to the UK, we need to know."

So in July 2013 he made the 23,000-mile trip to see if the pair could rekindle what they once had.

They have been together ever since.

Clive proposed to Claire in Paris exactly three years ago.

The couple now live in Hedge End and their future plans are to continue their mobile barista business, the Coffee Cruiser.

Claire, 53, said: "I was very nervous and excited to get married to Clive. Dick would be absolutely thrilled that Clive and I have got married - he made it clear that I should get on, live and love."

Her sister Jo Gregory, 56, a contracts administrator from Hamble, said that she could remember Clive from when the couple were first together.

She said: "Clive was so lovely and chilled out when he was younger and he hasn't changed a bit. I am so happy for my sister and it is such a lovely story."