In 2012, Aimee Copeland lost all four limbs in a zip-lining accident that resulted in a flesh-eating bacterial infection. The stunning reversal of fortune led the 36-year-old to dramatically rethink her future — which involved an end to a previous relationship. But the loss was actually her gain — Copeland met the man of her dreams just three years later.
“We were a 95% match on OkCupid,” the Georgia native told People , referring to her now-husband Stephen Mercier. “We’re extremely compatible. We’re very different, but in ways that really balance each other,” she said, gushing over their “amazing flow.
” She refers to Mercier, 36, as her “built-in brake system.” “When I’m hitting the gas too hard, I know I’m not going to hit a retaining wall because he will tap the brakes and mind to relax,” she explained. Mercier, who she married in 2021 in an intimate ceremony at her family’s lake house, said he was “attracted to her powerful mind, her powerful just energy and spirit about her,” adding that “she can kind of make things happen.
” Copeland previously told People how her break-up had ruined her self-confidence after her accident, in which she fell from a makeshift zip line and ended up in the hospital days later. But Mercier has helped her regain her confidence. “I have this memory that really stands out of me and Stephen cuddling, and he’s like, ‘I think your body is absolutely perfect,'” said Copeland.
“He really appreciates.
