Nearly everyone has a “one that got away.” Whether you dumped them and are regretting every second of it or they got rid of you and you were not ready for it, there is always that one ex who we just can’t let go of. While some say it happened and you should never look back, many others refuse to believe that this is the end. But fear no more, as the relationship coach is out there, ready to help.

If you have seen the movie Hitch, you will be familiar with the smooth dating coach portrayed by Will Smith, who helps men attract women. But does this fictional character really exist? Lee Wilson did not always have relationship knowledge. During his late teens, years he suffered from two “very painful” break-ups. While statistics show that the average person suffers from heartache twice in their life, Wilson wanted to do something about it. Meet the real-life Hitch.

Growing up, Lee Wilson began to realize that his days of bad dates and heartbreak were over and that he had something going for him. Throughout his college years, “when I wasn’t actively looking to be in a relationship,” Wilson noticed he had numerous girls asking him out. While he wasn’t as gifted as some other college guys in the looks department, there was something about his personality which drew many girls towards him. But that was just the beginning…

After studying theology, the study of the nature of God and religious belief, in college, Lee went on to work as a copywriter for a marriage guidance firm. Although he was not fully aware of his gift at the time, Lee found himself interested in the works of the firm. Rather than doing what he was hired to do, he was giving relationship advice to many of the clients. It seemed that he was a natural at it.

In the end, Lee decided to follow a different career path, one he felt he was much more suited to. Leaving copywriting behind, he turned to coaching. Despite only having recently married his wife, Joanna, in 2000, he felt as though he knew enough. Lee was mentored by Dr. Joe Beam, a Ph.D. who specializes in the area of biomedical science with an emphasis in human attraction. He worked mostly with troubled marriages and it gave Lee an idea…

While working for Dr. Beam, Lee owned his own dating website and members of the site began to contact him with their relationship issues. He noticed that the majority of people turning to him were single people who would ask for help after they had been dumped. Not only were they anonymous strangers, but many of Lee’s requests were coming from people he knew and even his close friends. Suddenly, Lee saw potential and decided to turn his passion into a business.

12 years ago, ‘Dating Coach’ Lee Wilson, then rebranded himself as ‘The Ex Coach.’ Ever since, he has been receiving up to 14 calls a day from people who, just like Jackson 5 sang it, want their exes back. For years he was known through word-of-mouth, until 2017 when he offered his services on his site, MyExBackCoach.com. His clients, who come from all over including the USA, UK, Australia, and Ireland, all have one thing in common – they have loved and lost.

So what advice does the King of Exes give to these single people in need? He revealed, “I always tell people who come to me that you need to give the other person space and that means not texting them.” We are all guilty of thinking the best way to get an ex back is to try and avoid being out of sight and out of mind. However, Lee suggests “not constantly trying to contact them, telling them how much you miss them.”

According to the Ex Coach, “absence is power.” While calling your ex countless times and waiting on their doorstep generally works in the movies, just like when Allie fought for Noah back in the classic film, The Notebook, don’t go thinking the same will happen for you. Lee says, “Let them go and tell them that you respect the decision to end things and then let that person start to miss you and notice that you’re not there anymore.”

While it is hard to have no contact, Lee Wilson has provided advice on his YouTube channel explaining what the other side is thinking. Wilson gives one word – relief. He says the ex will be feeling “relief” after the breakup and you will be feeling “crushed.” Therefore, by having no contact,  your ex will go through a phase in order to start being afraid and curious “that they have blown it with you.”

Most of Lee’s clients say that they fear without contact their ex will just move on. However, the Ex Coach disagrees. By “constantly asking them about the relationship,” even casually, they are going to know that you are “trying to get them back.” With contact, you become easily accessible and they will not have feelings of concern that they have lost you. In other words, contact makes it easier for them to move on!

However, Coach Lee explains there are some exceptions to using no contact. If either your ex reaches out or you and your ex share children, property, or other business, the rule can be broken. While many other dating coaches say the no contact rule should be permanent, coach Lee believes there is a time limit. He says, “45 days if the relationship was up to 6 months. After a year it’s somewhere around a month and a half. And beyond that, it’s 2 months or more.”

Let’s take the scenario that you made all the effort you can to stick to the no contact rule. There were times you almost texted your ex, even writing out a message, to then quickly delete it before clicking send. However, one day, your ex gets back in touch with you. What do you do? Lee says “When they then choose to contact you, it’s important to show them that you are in a positive place and could potentially move on.”

With all this advice, it seems like Lee Wilson is a man who speaks rather highly of himself in regards to his skills and knowledge. He believes he has a sort of magic touch when it comes to fixing relationships and especially can help those who want to get their exes back. Lee estimates that among his clients who follow his advice, there is a 55 to 75% success rate. But why not 100%? According to Lee, there are some factors beyond his control.

Although he has break-up superpowers, Lee admits that chances of reconciliation after a break-up are slim once three months have passed. Thinking highly of his work, he feels as though any failings in his coaching are a result of additional factors such as a long distance or there was a particularly bitter split. However, Lee does not give up, adding, “Normally, I find that my method is helpful in most instances, even the most extreme.” And one case certainly was extreme…

Even in the strangest of circumstances, Lee’s method can be put to the test with a positive result. One man came to him after his girlfriend had dumped him. She discovered that he had once been in jail, and even though it was for a crime he hadn’t committed, she wasn’t able to deal with the fact. Before meeting Lee he would phone her constantly to rescue their relationship, but a month after seeking his help, he finally got her back. It seems Lee’s method paid off.

Whether it may be a parent, a teacher, a mentor, or even a friend, we’d rather listen to those who have first-hand experience than those who have just read books and studied. So what has Lee been through in life that makes him worthy to comment? Lee says his own “rock solid” marriage has allowed him to coach others. He admitted, “Obviously, my marriage with Joanna has helped a lot with my work and vice versa.”

While it is great that Coach Lee can advise heartbroken singles, is he also able to avoid it happening in the first place? Lee’s main advice is “not to rush things, not to force anything or lock someone down.” Instead, he thinks it’s important to see your partner like everyone else, “Focus on your partner as a person and not as an object of desire – and if you do that, things should be a lot easier and more natural.”

Although it is easier said than done, Coach Lee likes to stress the importance of “playing it cool and not giving your ex too much attention.” While most amateurs would recommend against playing games and advise that it is best to be yourself, Lee’s advice is pretty much the opposite. Sometimes waiting a few hours to text, waiting a few days to see them, and waiting a while to move in with them is better.

Coach Lee learned that playing it cool was the way forward from his own life. For 19 years, Lee Wilson has been happily married to Joanna, 40, a stay-at-home-mom. Talking about his experiences, he said that it “was hugely helpful for me in my later career because afterward, I realized the value of not trying too hard.” He added, “The biggest and most common mistake people make when they’re trying to get back with their exes is to become desperate and grasping.”

A typical ex usually begs for forgiveness and asks to be taken back, “immediately putting themselves in a position of weakness” and trying to appeal to their ex’s mercy. However, surprise, surprise, it doesn’t work. Instead, Lee claims, “That nearly always just digs the hole even deeper, because they didn’t go out with that person in the first place through mercy – they did it because of love and attraction.” So how does Coach Lee aka the Ex Coach, make thousands every month?

So how much do you earn as a relationship coach? How does Lee Wilson manage to support his stay-at-home wife and two children just by giving struggling singletons a few simple relationship pointers? According to the egotistical coach himself, Lee claims he makes thousands of dollars a year just by teaching, training, and advising his clients how to manipulate their exes into taking them back. But what exactly is he charging these people? And is it all worth it?

38-year-old Lee Wilson of Nashville, Tennessee, has been in the business for over 20 years now and has become super successful. He advises around 4,000 people each year who have struggled in the realm of love and need a little guidance on how to act. Charging $87 for each half-hour session and $47 for an ’emergency break-up kit,’ including a video and text guide to rekindling a broken romance, Wilson is raking in the cash. So if you are struggling to win over your ex, you know what to do.

As the big day of her wedding arrived, IgnoredBride explained how excited she had been for the occasion. She had spent a lot of time and energy trying to put together the ‘perfect’ wedding ceremony and wanted to make certain that everything was perfect. Up until the day of her wedding, IgnoredBride had gone through a lot of trouble to ensure that she had everything she needed for the wedding. But nothing could prepare her for the response one of her guests would get just for arriving…

IgnoredBride stated how she had spent the past few months going through one wedding planning guide after another to ensure that everything fell into place perfectly. She had been engaged to her fiancé for a number of years but the two had only decided to plan their wedding out later on in the relationship. She felt that it was time that they took their relationship to the next level and their wedding day would mark the next step.

IgnoredBride and her future husband were spending most of their own money on their wedding itself, and they wanted to make sure that they would be able to have the best possible wedding day yet. In order to ensure that things ran smoothly, the bride thought of everything and decided that limiting the number of people that she invited to the wedding was a good way to keep things under control. This way, she knew how to arrange the seating, food, and everything else perfectly.

For the wedding, the bride also realized that it would be more sensible to add a plus one for every bridesmaid in attendance. While she knew she wanted to keep the wedding intimate, she also thought it would be good to ensure that everyone had someone to bring to the wedding. The idea was that this would help keep things festive. However, she had no idea that one of her bridesmaids would wind up ruining all of her plans – totally by accident!

Finally, the day of the wedding had arrived. As the guests started appearing at the venue, it was clear that everyone was in high spirits for the event. The bride had gotten dressed earlier that day and was out and about mingling with family and friends. A little while after the reception had started, the bride noticed that one of her bridesmaids, a young woman named Anna, had arrived with a tall handsome man. She was also a few months pregnant at the time…

At first, the bride didn’t seem to take note of Anna much. She continued mingling with her guests and doing her most to enjoy the reception – it was her big day after all. However, she started to realize how almost all of the guests had, at one point or another, started hanging out around Anna and her partner. In fact, it almost seemed as though Anna and her pregnancy had become the center of attention at the wedding – her wedding!

While the bride was trying her best to act natural and calm about the fact that Anna was getting more attention than her at her own wedding, she couldn’t stop feeling miserable. In her mind, the day of her wedding was meant to be all about her. However, Anna was simply soaking up all the attention and to the bride, it seemed as though it was almost directed at her. It was like Anna had purposefully planned to steal her day…

As the ceremony continued, it was clear that everyone was very interested in chatting with Anna about her pregnancy. The fact that she was still very young and that she had recently decided to get married herself was simply too much for many of the guests to ignore. All the while though, the bride simply sat there holding back tears as she watched someone else soak up the attention on what was meant to be her special day…

After a little longer, the bride simply couldn’t handle what was happening at that point. Without warning, she simply took off and left the reception in a teary, hurried mess. There was no denying that she had been very negatively affected by all the attention that Anna was receiving. As you can imagine though, everyone at the wedding was a little distressed by the fact that the bride had just left without warning. They were all very confused…

Not only had the bride left her own wedding, but she had caused quite a scene by leaving in such an emotional way (and without warning). There was no way that she would be returning though, as the events of the wedding had affected her terribly. The scene at the wedding was quite awkward. The poor groom was left there without a bride and everyone else had no way to describe what had just happened. The wedding, it seemed, was over…

Because of the fact that the bride had originally planned for the day to be as perfect as possible, she even went to the trouble or arranging a brunch for her closest guests the following day. However, because she had simply vanished from the ceremony without a trace, the tone at the brunch was incredibly awkward as well. Thankfully the bride wasn’t there to see how even at the brunch, she still wasn’t the center of attention…

It turned out that Anna had done yet another thing that had subliminally ticked off the bride. She had brought a friend along whom the bride did not like very much. While it’s not clear if Anna knew this or not, the fact of the matter was that it had distressed the bride quite a lot. On top of getting all the attention,  Anna had gone the extra mile by bringing an unwelcome plus one. But the story only gets wilder from here…

At the brunch the next morning, the bride was informed that even there she was not the subject of conversation. Even after having stormed out of her own wedding, the poor lady was being ignored. She felt as though she was a guest at her own wedding and couldn’t believe that those closest to her didn’t seem to care that she didn’t show up. It was like all they could talk about was Anna and her friend…

However, the brunch revealed yet another drama that turned what was meant to have been a wonderful celebration of two people falling in love, into something from a soap opera! According to the family and friends at brunch, Anna’s plus one was actually attracted to men. In order to make the whole thing that much more awkward for the poor bride, her brother had allegedly hooked up with Anna’s plus one (who the bride disliked) and left the wedding shortly after her. The bride was outraged at this point!

While she never considered herself to be an overly emotional person, it was clear that the bride couldn’t deal with this.  It was like watching the most important day of her life slip out of her hands while someone else got all the attention she felt she deserved. While Anna and the attention she received proved to be too much for the bride to handle, the fact that her own brother had slept with Anna’s friend was one thing too many…

The bride was really peeved. She didn’t even get the chance to have her wedding, meaning that she was technically still only engaged. She also felt that she had been robbed not only of her special day but also all of the money she had spent on her failed wedding. So, not being one to let this slip, the bride took to the internet to try and see if she was wrong for feeling angry about any of this…

She took to Reddit and wrote a long and wordy post about what had happened. She described how her wedding day had been stolen from her and that things had basically all been ruined just because a bridesmaid stole the show. Rather than simply writing out her anger, the bride figured that she wanted to ask Anna to pay her $30,000 for the lost expenses of her wedding day costs. The bride felt that this was reasonable because her wedding had cost her that much in cash…

She started off the angry message by stating that she did not consider herself to be a bridezilla in any way. For those of you who don’t know, a bridezilla is someone who becomes crazy at or leading up to their wedding, making demands of everyone and doing anything they need to make sure their day is perfect. While she was trying her best to make an honest statement about her feelings, trying to make a point about not being a bridezilla was only making her seem like more of a bridezilla.

After venting her frustration in the long and lengthy post, it was clear that the bride was really dejected about missing her big wedding day and that she felt she was justified in asking for the money back. Pretty soon though, it became apparent that she had misplaced much of her anger. Many of the people who started commenting on her post, told her that it was unreasonable to just leave your own wedding like that and that Anna wasn’t in the wrong, she was…

As more and more people started getting involved in the post, it became apparent that they believed that the bride had been acting unreasonably. It was unlikely that Anna had planned to get pregnant just months before the wedding day. Whether she knew the bride wouldn’t like the person she brought along or not still didn’t mean that she had to leave her entire wedding like that. They also thought that it was unrealistic to ask for the cash in return, simply because Anna had done nothing wrong!

After all, it was the bride herself that had made such a big deal out of something as small as Anna’s plus-one and the attention she was receiving. Had she wanted to keep herself in the center of the attention, all she would have to do is make a speech or start talking to guests again. Unfortunately, according to a few responses the bride made to her original post, she and Anna had fallen out. That seemed likely though, given all that drama!

Most who responded to the post had told her that she was merely overreacting! While it may have seemed like Anna had tried to steal the attention from her on her big day, it was clear that the bride was making a big fuss out of nothing. While it may have seemed reasonable for her to want her special day back, the fact was that by just being the bride of her own wedding, she would have gotten the attention again with the rest of ceremony…

Unfortunately for the bride, it seemed as though the special day that would have once marked such a happy time in her life would now hold only unhappy memories. The poor woman had freaked out about a friend getting more attention than her on her special day, and wound up leaving her own wedding as a result. Did she get the cash she wanted to ask for? It seems not. Maybe it’s bets to just elope next time!