Julie Shore and Scott Gaede “are officially REmarried” after a years-long courtship that their daughters Rachel and Caroline are calling a real-life Parent Trap.
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Rachel chronicled the couple’s journey back to the alter on TikTok and earned a mass following in the process. PEOPLE eventually reached out to them to learn more about their love story.
Julie and Scott first met over 25 years ago. Julie’s sister and brother-in-law arranged the meeting. And it only took “two weeks” for Scott to realize she was the one.
While the pair committed their lives to the other early on, they dated for around three years before Scott popped the question. A year later, in 1997, they said “I do.” In 1999, they welcomed Rachel, and in 2003 Caroline joined the family.
Despite the hopeful start, the marriage fell apart in 2014.
“I think where we first broke down was really communication and just losing that element of being able to speak and really hear, really listen and understand one another,” Julie shared.
It took four years to finalize their divorce, and each of them went on to date other people and start new lives. However, the COVID-19 lockdowns brought them back together.
The sisters were living with their mother and grandmother at the time. Because of their grandmother’s age, they followed strict quarantine rules. For Scott to see his girls, he had to do the same. That re-introduced Scott and Julie on a more personal level.
“I was like, ‘You have a crush on Dad and you’re lying about it, and you haven’t told anyone.’ She was like, ‘No, I don’t. No, I don’t.’ I could tell that she believed that she didn’t. I was like, ‘Okay, girl, whatever,’ ” Rachel told the publication.
About a week after that conversation, Julie walked into Rachel’s room and finally realized her crush.
Real-Life Parent Trap Comes Full-Circle
After that, things started falling into place. Julie recalled having an “epiphany” after tragedy hit and Scott lost both of his parents within a year.
“That was my moment where it was very much, we have to be together, and it’s beyond whatever problems we had,” said Julie.
The couple went on a trip to the Pacific Northwest to “hash out” the past. Following their daughters’ permission to try again, they elevated their relationship by moving the entire family into a new house.
“I think getting to watch your parents fall in love is not something that a lot of people get to experience,” Rachel shared.
On December 28, 2023, Scott and Julie re-married with their daughters by their side. Their nephew, who was a ring bearer during their first wedding, officiated the ceremony.
“WAR IS OVERRRRRR,” Rachel captioned on a video taken just after the nuptials. “Our parents are officially REmarried and we are no longer children of divorce.”
While Rachel and Caroline joked that they’re part of a real-life parent trap, they admitted that their story was a bit different because their mom and dad didn’t need help getting back together.
“The way we look at it is just … in the whole arc of our marriage as a single unit … the divorce was just part of our relationship,” Scott added. “I do think that we both said in different ways, ‘if we didn’t go through the divorce, we would’ve never been able to get back together.'”
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