A couple’s romance began after their exes cheated on them with each other.
Brett and Tracy Denson’s love story is messier than most. The couple, both 25, have recently gone viral on TikTok for sharing their story, in which Tracy explained how the end of two “toxic” relationships led to the start of an unexpected one.
“It’s a story that really shows the best things in life can come out of some of the worst moments,” Tracy tells PEOPLE. “If I didn’t get cheated on, I wouldn’t have found the love of my life.”
Alison White Photography
On Valentine’s Day in 2020, Tracy and Brett, who were 19 and 20 at the time, struck up a conversation at a college party. Tracy playfully questioned Brett, who was the president of his fraternity, for being dateless and not dressing on theme.
As she was giving him “a hard time about it,” Brett admitted that he didn’t have any Valentine’s Day spirit because his relationship had ended two days prior due to his ex-girlfriend being unfaithful. Tracy then shared that she happened to be going through a breakup too, which also stemmed from her ex-boyfriend cheating with a co-worker.
Moments later, the pair connected the dots.
Alison White Photography
“He said, ‘Well I guess that makes two of us because she was also cheating on me with a guy from work.’ So I looked at him and said, ‘Where does she work?’ ” Tracy recalls to PEOPLE. “And when he said her name and where she worked it was like the wind got knocked out of me. I said back, ‘No. Way. My ex is [ex’s name], and he cheated on me with your ex-girlfriend!’ ”
Tracy says whether or not she and Brett knew it at the time, that was the moment their romance sparked. It was as if fate had brought them together.
“That was our first conversation. It was truly a random act of meeting,” she says. “I had no idea who he was when I initially met him.”
Alison White Photography
After Tracy and Brett put two and two together, they “immediately” left the party and had an approximately six-hour-long conversation from midnight to 6 a.m., “talking about everything.”
“We immediately clicked,” Tracy remembers.
She adds, “We knew each other was the one on that drive the night we met. Regardless of the conversation being about how our exes screwed us over, there was an explicit moment where we were parked and he said, ‘So who are you? Tell me about you outside of this.’ My whole entire being lit up, and I knew right then I was going to marry this guy.”
While Brett would describe their bond as “love at first sight,” Tracy wasn’t quite on his level. She “friend-zoned” him for a while out of fear they were just “super trauma-bonded,” but eventually agreed that their connection was something more.
Three months later in May 2020, the duo started dating and they’ve been inseparable ever since.
Two years after that, Brett popped the question in a romantic ice skating proposal in Colorado.
“He flew all of our families out and flew out my best friend from Utah to photograph the moment,” Tracy shares. “It was a very intimate proposal. No, I didn’t see it coming! But yes, I was so excited.”
Anthony Berley
Nine months later on Sept. 17, 2022, the couple said “I do” in Colorado — and even invited their exes to the wedding.
“We made a petty move — as 22-year-olds do — and invited both our exes to our wedding,” Tracy shares. “No, of course they didn’t come. But how could we not — they’re how we got here!”
Brett and Tracy now share a 2-year-old son, Maverik, and have another baby boy on the way.
“[We] truly have lived exactly what they would call a ‘happily ever after,’ ” Tracy says. “We have a beautiful, growing family and are living our best lives.”