Would love to meet – a buyer for my dating app: How a widow’s search for love led to tech success

Nicky Wake was only 49 years old when she lost her husband Andy to Covid.

He had been ill for three years after suffering a heart attack in 2017 that left him with severe brain damage.

But when the pandemic hit, Nicky’s world was thrown into even greater crisis.

“I knew this was the beginning of our end,” she told the Mail.

“I knew he wouldn’t survive that.”

That end came on April 17, 2020, when her partner of 18 years passed away, leaving Nicky alone in lockdown with their 12-year-old son.

But after a year in a ‘black hole of grief’, Nicky, now 53, decided it was time to get out there again.

When she signed up for Tinder, Hinge and Bumble, she quickly discovered it was like the ‘Wild West’.

“It was all obscene photos, ghosting, married men. I thought there must be an app for widows,” she said.

In 2022, she decided to take matters into her own hands and founded the UK’s first app just for widows: Chapter 2. This is a place where widows and widowers can connect and find their second love story.

Users must provide so-called widow verification in order to register: a death certificate or a memorial page.

In addition to chatting on the app, members are also invited to monthly meetings throughout the country.

This is a great opportunity to tap into the estimated 3.1 million bereaved families in the UK.

Chapter 2 currently has 8,000 users, many of whom pay a subscription fee of £34.99 per month to match and chat.

And after just 18 months, Wake claims there are at least 20 successful couples, and Chapter 2 has made its first proposal. The wedding is set for October.

The oldest member she’s ever met is 84 years old and Wake calls him “absolutely fantastic.”

Another important goal is to break the taboos surrounding older women.

“At 50, I’m in my prime… You’re confident and self-aware. You know what you want,” she said.

‘Just because we’re over 50 doesn’t mean we stop having sex. It’s a very important part of who we are and our identity.

‘And isn’t it great that you can’t get pregnant anymore!’ With a combination of her own money and £150,000 from investors, Chapter 2 launches this week in the US and Australia, and next week in Canada.

Chapter 2 also runs advertising campaigns on ITV and through radio stations to increase subscription numbers.

According to Wake, “hundreds of people” have already signed up for the app.

But these are busy times for Wake, who runs Chapter 2 with her events group Don’t Panic Projects, which she founded in 2005.

But despite her ambitions for the app, she’s also a realist.

“We are niche. We will never be Bumble, Hinge or Tinder, we will never try to take them on,” she said.

But she added: ‘My plan is to grow it for five years. And then hopefully sell it to one of the bigger dating companies.’

And this is a familiar path for dating apps, which have gradually been taken over by sites like Match Group.

The beating heart of Chapter 2, however, is about leaving a legacy for her late husband. “Andy would be so proud that I took the most devastating and negative thing in the world and turned it into something positive,” she said, adding that she herself has yet to find a new partner.

“It’s a love letter to a love we could never end,” she said.