A BREIGHTMET ex-pat found a spiritual companion on Channel 4's First Dates Hotel.

Marie, aged 70, connected with 57-year-old Yorkshireman Devon, the pair bonded quickly over their shared love of smoking and Devon was intrigued by Marie's spiritual side.

Marie, who is divorced, said she had asked the TV-show for an 'Elvis impersonator, black, Buddhist or a Bob Marley impersonator'.

Devon, a poet, lives in Huddersfield and has lived in the UK since 1970. He was born in Jamaica and said he was waiting for his love story to begin.

Devon asked Marie if she was a middle-class lady and Marie told him of Bright Meadows.

She said: "It used to be a small village called Bright Meadows, it became Breightmet and it's one of the worst areas in Bolton.

"But, I like it, my family live there."

Marie told Devon she wanted to work at Butlins when she was younger but her father would not let her. She married at 19, had her sons in her twenties and was divorced at 35.

She put it down to a disagreement her and her husband had when she started going to university.

She said: "I went to university, my husband laughed and he said 'do you think you're better than me now?'

"I said, 'I don't think I know that'.

"Marriage over."

She revealed that when she reached 60 she sold her house and moved to India and sat under the Bodhi Tree, where the Buddha is said to have gained enlightenment.

The pair enjoyed a second lunch time date the next day where Marie flexed her spiritual muscles and read a tarot spread for Devon. Predicting he was entering a time of great change.

At the end of last night's episode viewers were told the pair were still 'exploring each others cultures'. The show ended as the pair went on a Caribbean-themed date in Huddersfield.