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As I sat at home one Sunday, I was planning on phoning one of my girlfriends for a catch-up. However, when it rang, a man picked up the phone – a man who went on to .

“Oh, I’m sorry, you’re not my friend,”I told him and explained I must have dialled the wrong number. “No, I’m not. But won’t I do?” The unknown man asked in a low and gentle voice. I politely declined and told him “absolutely not” and put the phone down as I told him I was after a on a Sunday afternoon, something he wouldn’t be able to offer. But there was something about the encounter that I couldn’t stop thinking about.

The light-hearted banter, his voice and his gripped me after the initial shock of realising it wasn’t my friend.

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Intrigued about this mystery man I’d accidentally called, I decided to redial the number. I was in my early thirties – I wasn’t desperate, but I felt like I needed to start weighing up my options. I was very happy in my career and I was newly single. It was very unlike me to be so spontaneous, but I am so glad I called him back.

I’d just come out of along-term relationship. We split up because our opinions didn’t align on starting a family– I wanted children and he didn’t. It wasn’t as if I was looking for a relationship, but this mystery man was on my mind. He answered my call and we chatted for a while. He was very witty and I could tell he was intelligent from speaking to him. His voice was actually rather sexy and I enjoyed our conversation.

When I called him back, he said,“I’m so pleased you called me back. I’m in my office and we have a switchboard, so I wasn’t able to trace your number.”

He told me his name was Efi Zazo. He was very funny and we got on well. We chatted regularly for three weeks and then he suggested we meet for a coffee.

There was no social media in 1996 and I had no idea what he looked like. I was basing my attraction solely on his voice.

My friends were worried, which was understandable. They warned me off him, telling me it was too risky, but sometimes you just have to go with your gut. There was something drawing me to Efi.

"But what if he’s a lunatic or even a killer?” said one of my friends. But I had a good feeling about him and, encouraged by my pals to arrange a daytime meeting, Efi and I agreed to go on a date.

First face-to-face

He was 28 and lived with his parents, while I rented an apartment in central London. I suggested we meet in Mayfair outside his office in the middle of the day. Nervous, I approached his building and walked up the stairs. I heard a voice I recognised say,“Hello Alison,” and I turned around to find a tall, good-looking man standing behind me, smiling.

“Oh wow, how did you know it was me?” I asked, rather concerned as I assumed he had no idea what I looked like. He beamed at me and said, “You’re the only person walking around here in the middle of the working day dressed in jeans and a ballerina top – so I assumed it was you.”

Blushing, I immediately relaxed and thought he was nice. Efi works in property and finance, while I ran my Alison At Home interiors brand. My first impression of him was positive. I knew from our phone calls that he was kind, funny and very clever. I also knew he would be a fantastic dad and having children was important to me. He was exactly what I thought he would be.

The reason I broke up with my ex was because he didn’t want children. Efi was the total opposite and we shared the same dream of having a family. I also knew from his voice that he was going to be Middle Eastern and that he was from , but I was still unsure what he was going to look like. However, after sitting wondering for so long, he looked exactly how I had imagined.

We hit it off and six weeks later, after three or four more dates, Efi proposed to me while we were having lunch together.

Wary of committing

“It’s completely obvious to me you’re the woman for me,” he said as he asked me to marry him. I was in complete shock and, even though we got on so well, I told him it was too soon and I wanted to wait a little longer. Even though I knew I felt the same, I was wary of committing so quickly. I told him it was a bit too soon for me to make that kind of decision. Being the man he is, Efi simply replied, “Take all the time you need. And when you’re ready, I will be waiting.”

After weeks of deliberation and talking to friends and my business partner about the situation, I told Efi I would, indeed, marry him.

We got married on 24 February, 2000, after my mum lightheartedly asked if I’d “been round the block enough times”.

I feel like, in life, you have to be open to the possibilities of the . That’s when extraordinary things can happen – and here we are 25 years later.

We decided to marry in Israel as it’s Efi’s birthplace. We had 300 guests for our big day. In 2009, we moved into our current home, a beautiful townhouse in London’s Belgravia, and we’ve been thriving ever since.

Efi and I celebrated our silver wedding anniversary in February. We have two sons, Ethan, 24, and David, 21. We are still very much in love and sometimes I have to pinch myself when I think about how a wrong number led us to find each other.