‘We all need and crave affection’

A voluptuous widow launches an app for other bereaved relatives who long for casual sex.

Nicky Wake, 51, says thousands of widows and widowers are ready to join WidowsFire, which she fathered after the death of her husband, Andy, 57, in 2020.

“‘Widow’s fire’ is a term often used within the widower community to describe the intense, uncontrollable or all-consuming desire for sex after the loss of a partner,” the British entrepreneur explained of her app’s name as she spoke to SWNS.

“I shared my bed with my husband for 20 years, and then all of a sudden he’s gone,” she continued. “If you have a healthy sex life, it will be a gaping void. We all need and crave affection, hugs and stolen kisses.”

WidowsFire will go live in June, requiring members to provide their partner’s death certificate to prove eligibility for the app.

Meanwhile, Wake has also created a separate app called Chapter 2, designed for widows and widowers ready for some serious romance again.

Speaking to SWNS in January, Wake explained that the idea for the apps came after she finally worked up the courage to start dating again.

“I met Andy online [back in 2002], but modern online dating had changed a lot,” she recalled. “There used to be no dk photos or ghosting. Dating today is like the wild west, and as a widow I was extremely vulnerable and a little broken.

She added: “When I go to widows’ meetings, the conversation often turns to, ‘Have you started dating again?’…and I thought there was a clue here. I checked and there was no app for widows, there was nothing authentic and sincere.

Wake says the two apps offer options for widows and widowers: one for those ready to get serious about dating again, and the other for people who just miss physical touch and intimacy.

Wake met her late husband on DatingDirect.com, and the couple instantly clicked. They married in Jamaica in 2004 and had a son, Finn, in 2007.

“We lived an idyllic happy life,” the widow recalled. “He was a great stay-at-home dad and did all the school walks and cooked.”

However, in July 2017, their happy life was turned upside down when Andy suffered a heart attack.

The pair felt they had a “lucky escape” after he survived the ordeal, but just four days later he suffered a second heart attack, which caused a “catastrophic” brain injury due to lack of oxygen.

“He couldn’t walk, he didn’t know who I was and he didn’t know where he was,” said Wake, who said Andy had to be placed in a nursing home for 24-hour care.

“Very often he had no idea who I was when I came to visit, which is heartbreaking,” she added.

Andy contracted COVID-19 shortly after the outbreak of the pandemic and passed away at just 57 years old.

After starting the scary process of dating again, Wake said she realized how much she had in common with widowers.

“We didn’t choose this,” she explained. “We didn’t leave our partner, we were left in this situation, not out of our choice, which makes it doubly difficult.”

Wake admitted that it’s “the weirdest thing in the world” to have a new sexual relationship after losing a long-term partner, noting, “Kissing someone new after 20 years with someone you know so intimately is weird In a long-term relationship you don’t have to think about that too much, but in a new relationship it can be daunting.

The single mother says she is overwhelmed by the positive response to her ventures and claims it has given her something to live for.

“I think if I can help some people find some joy, it helps me understand my loss,” she said. “It’s given me a reason to get up in the morning and a reason to be.”