A woman who was forced to sit alone on a nine-hour flight after being separated from her friends has revealed how she ended up falling in love with the man sitting in front of her – and now, the married couple spends their days traveling the globe together.

Martina, now 37, and Leslie Johnson, now 41, met by chance when they were both flying to Kenya back in 2014.

Martina, from New Jersey , was traveling with five of her pals, but when she found out that she wouldn’t be sitting with them, she was left scrambling.

Desperate to not be alone for the immense journey, she begged those around them to switch seats – but no one obliged.

A disappointed Martina ended up sitting in the row behind New York City-native Leslie – unknowing that he would one day become her husband.

The two ended up hitting it off and talking ‘the entire flight’ – and by the time they landed in Nairobi, Martina said she knew they ‘were going to be together’ one day.

‘We talked the entire flight. We had a really good conversation,’ she told CNN Travel recently.

‘In the back of my head, I’m thinking, “If he’s single, we’re going to date.” But I didn’t know if he was single.’

What makes their meeting even more magical is that Martina almost didn’t go on the trip because she thought it was a ‘scam’ when she first discovered how cheap the flight was – only $279 for a round-trip flight to Africa.

After chatting all the way there, Martina asked for Leslie’s number before the two went their separate ways.

They thought that might be the end of it, but when they coincidentally ran into each other at a restaurant in Kenya a few days later, it seemed like fate.

The couple explained that they both noticed each other almost immediately, but didn’t realize that the other person had seen them.

‘I went to the restroom, but I didn’t think [I] caught [her] attention. So I ended up going back like two or three more times,’ Leslie explained. ‘But I still didn’t make any kind of eye contact with her.’

Martina recalled, ‘I was excited to see him. But I was also playing it very cool.’

The two finally spoke when they were both done eating, but Martina admitted the interaction felt ‘a little awkward.’ Even so, she left with the same feeling she had on the airplane: That they would somehow end up together.

‘It’s weird, because it was just a matter-of-fact feeling. It wasn’t necessarily like, “Oh, I just met this guy – I’m so excited.” It was just a very calm, matter-of-fact,’ she gushed.

‘Like, we just had a great conversation and he seemed like a great person. [I thought], “If he’s single, that’s it. We’re going to date.”‘

‘Everything just kind of seemed like it was meant to be, or just was happening for a reason,’ Leslie agreed.

After they both got back to the States, Martina decided to send Leslie a text message, which read, ‘How’s jet lag treating you?’

They then started talking about what they had been up to on their respective trips and after a few days of chatting nonstop, Leslie asked to take her out to dinner.

They went to a South African restaurant in midtown, and after that, they were inseparable.

‘We were constantly in touch,’ Leslie revealed, with Martina adding, ‘It was very easy. There were no gray areas. We liked each other, and we hung out, we spent time together.’

Three months later, they made their romance official, and around year after that, Leslie got down on one knee and asked Martina to marry him during a romantic trip to London.

They tied the knot in Columbus, Ohio, in October 2018, and the theme of the wedding was ‘Love at first sight.’

Now, nearly a decade after they met by chance on an airplane, the couple have used their mutual love of travel to become viral online stars.

They have racked up nearly 100,000 followers on their joint Instagram account, called The Couple Who Travels, where they document their endeavors and share travel tips.

They’ve visited Antigua and Barbuda, The Maldives, Turkey, and Guatemala all within the last year.

Looking back on how their romance began, Leslie still can’t believe how lucky he got, telling CNN, ‘I met someone who lived not too far away from me, but I met them on a plane – thousands or whatever miles away from home.’

As for Martina, she hopes that their story will encourage others to get out and travel more.

‘Do what you love, and it will lead you to everything else,’ she concluded. ‘I love to travel. I traveled and I met the love of my life.

‘So find that thing that you love and you don’t know what breadcrumbs that will lead you to.

‘It might lead you to the love of your life. It might lead you to your purpose – you just don’t know, but we all have unique desires and things that we are passionate about.

‘Don’t ignore it. Don’t wait for someone else to go with you. Just do what you love and see what happens.’