Woman Goes on Spontaneous Date in Ireland, but Things Take Unexpected Turn After She Kisses His ‘More Attractive’ Friend (Exclusive)

In August 2022, while visiting Ireland, Leigh Ann Healey decided to log on to Hinge to test her luck with love abroad and immerse herself in the local charm.

“I was single at the time, so I thought it would be fun to meet some cute boys with even cuter accents,” Healey tells PEOPLE exclusively.

After matching with a man in Dublin, she made plans to meet him at a bar, bringing her friends along for the fun.

The night, however, took an unexpected turn when her Hinge date showed up with a friend he introduced as his “much more attractive” counterpart. When Healey laid eyes on Darragh, her “jaw actually dropped.”

Little did Healey know that the man she’d matched with wasn’t the real twist of fate waiting for her that night.

“[Darragh] very much indeed lived up to his introduction,” the 29-year-old admits. “He had this thick neck, stocky rugby-player build… and the kind of smile that makes you forget your own name for a second.”

The California native realized almost immediately that she was vibing more with Darragh, who asked for his last name to be omitted, than her actual date. Still, she tried to ignore their connection to avoid being rude.

“We had this magnetic pull toward each other,” Healey recalls. “Totally led by attraction at that point, but our silly banter made it clear we wanted to keep talking, too.”

It wasn’t until her friend nudged her, pointing out she might never see them again, that Healey allowed herself to see where the spark could lead.

“We’d moved from a touristy bar, Bad Bobs, to a local club, Copper Faced Jacks, when ‘Super Freaky Girl’ by Nicki Minaj came on,” she explains. “We slowly inched closer and closer together, and suddenly, we were kissing. So cliché, but my heart was absolutely soaring.”

Never expecting to see either man again after that night, Healey was surprised when Darragh offered to pick her and her friend up early in the morning and drive them to the airport.

“He carried my luggage to security while holding my hand,” she recalls. “On the way, he said he wanted to see me again. I was so perplexed.”

While the thought of him visiting her in America made her “swoon,” deep down, Healey had a feeling that her fairytale trip would end once she got home.

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As it turned out, that couldn’t have been further from the truth.

Just two months after meeting and spending less than 48 hours together, Darragh flew to Los Angeles – his first time leaving Europe – to see if the chemistry with Healey was real.

“He stayed for two weeks, and I took time off work so we could really experience everything,” she explains. “We celebrated Halloween together – we went as Pooh and his ‘Honey,’ even though we weren’t even officially dating yet!”

During their time together, Healey took Darragh to his first American football game, enjoyed romantic dinners and even introduced him to “delicacies” like Cinnabon and The Cheesecake Factory.

The pair hiked, worked out, hit Disneyland and also “spent plenty of time just being lazy in the apartment, completely jet-lagged and delusionally happy.”

Following that trip, Healey and Darragh decided to make their relationship official, even posting a vlog about their time together on YouTube.

Once Darragh returned home, Healey came up with a few ground rules to keep their long-distance relationship strong: they would call every day, see each other every couple of months and plan to live in the same city within a year.

“Having an end date made it actually doable, and our time zones shockingly worked in our favor,” Healey shares. “He was a bartender, so when he got off at 2 a.m. in Ireland, it was 6 p.m. in L.A. when I would get off work. It actually fit perfectly!”

After less than one year of dating — fueled by love, determination and a hint of “kismet” — Darragh made the move from Ireland to L.A., and the couple has been living together since July 2023.

“We honestly have just been head over heels for each other since day one,” Healey tells PEOPLE, adding that her original date couldn’t have been “cooler” about how the situation turned out.

“He was thrilled,” she reveals, noting that he “literally took credit for playing matchmaker,” and still brags about being “the reason they’re together.”

Despite having to leave the country to find her “dream” man, Healy says Darragh is the “best souvenir ever!”