Genton & Leonora

In the heat of July 2020, when the world was closed and hearts were searching for connection, a young man from Kramovik near Rahovec and a young woman from the Has region near Gjakova met on dua.com. Five years later, Genton, 27, and Leonora, 26, are married and living in Italy: proof of a love that overcame distance, tradition and prejudice.

Genton, 27, had studied English and Albanian, but the reality of Kosovo’s job market led him to work in several different sectors. “I used to be completely against moving abroad,” he says, laughing from their home in Italy. “And now here I am, talking to you from Italy.” In July 2020, he happened to see an advertisement for dua.com and decided to try it, just as the app was being launched.

Leonora, 26, came from a traditional family in the Has region, where girls did not go out unaccompanied and every step toward love had to pass through the filters of tradition. She was simply looking for a game on her phone when dua.com appeared. Curious, she installed it, completed her profile and began browsing. Her family held firmly to tradition and rarely let her go out alone, but deep down she believed that true love was waiting for her somewhere.

After two days on the app, Genton came across Leonora’s profile. “The moment I saw her photos, I liked her immediately and wrote to her,” he remembers. The reply did not arrive at once. Several hours passed, and he decided to stop trying for the day.

When he returned home from work, a surprise was waiting: Leonora had written back. What had happened on her side was even more remarkable. “As soon as I saw Genton’s profile, I knew he was going to be my husband,” Leonora says with a certainty that still amazes people today.

Within two days, they moved their conversation to Snapchat, and Leonora saved a screenshot of their first exchange, a gesture she now sees as prophetic. Then, in a move that showed how certain she already felt, she deleted the app.

Exchanging numbers was not easy for Genton, who wanted to respect her pace. At 11 p.m. one night after returning from work, he found a creative approach: “Leonora, please, here is my number. If you can, call me in two hours to wake me up for work again.”

Two hours later, his phone rang. From that night onward, their WhatsApp conversations never stopped. Long talks into the early hours became a nightly ritual and built a connection that went far beyond words.

On 13 August, the day before Leonora’s birthday and only 14 days after they began talking, Genton asked to meet her. Raised with strong traditions, Leonora agreed on one condition: “I can come, but someone has to accompany me.”

When Genton saw that she had brought her brother, he felt admiration rather than disappointment. “It showed me exactly what kind of character she had.”

Leonora’s brother stayed long enough to form an impression of the young man in front of him and then left them alone. Leonora remembers: “I’m glad my brother was with me because I would not have known how to speak to Genton on my own at that first meeting.”

Despite their initial reservations, Leonora’s family had little difficulty accepting Genton. “The first thing they told me was not to rush, and the second was not to go out with someone before getting to know him properly,” Leonora recalls with a laugh.

After five months of constant contact, Genton and Leonora became engaged on 25 December 2020. Remarkably, they had chosen the engagement date back in August, only weeks after matching. “I simply knew all along that he was my destiny,” Leonora says, laughing with complete confidence.

Life, however, had other plans. Family commitments delayed the wedding for three and a half years. Then, in October 2023, Genton had to move to Italy for work, beginning their greatest challenge: ten months apart immediately before their marriage.

At the beginning of 2024, Leonora made a bold decision. After months apart and countless long phone calls, the need to see each other became unbearable. Using a visit to a friend in Switzerland and to her brothers in Lausanne as a cover, she arranged secret meetings with Genton in Italy.

“It was a very big risk,” she admits today. The planning had to be perfect: every detail and every alibi. On her first trip in February, she stayed for five days while telling her family she was with her friend. Those days felt magical; after months apart, being together again made time seem to stand still.

Then Genton surprised her with a ticket for a second visit. This time Leonora stayed for two full weeks, creating what she calls “our best memories up to that point”. Every moment was precious because they knew another separation would soon follow.

The return was emotional. Leonora cried so much over leaving Genton that she forgot her suitcase in Switzerland. “I could not stop crying,” she remembers. To this day, her family believes she was enjoying the Alpine scenery at a Swiss mountain resort. The truth was much sweeter: she had been with the love of her life.

On 10 August 2024, Genton and Leonora married. They organised the preparations online during their months apart, while the wedding itself respected every tradition, from the clothing and gold coins to each detail requested by the bride’s family.

Nothing about their wedding was excessive. There were only the people closest to them and a pure sense of relief. Everything distance had kept apart was finally united. “It was the best event of our lives,” the couple says.

Two or three days after the wedding, they travelled through several Italian cities on their honeymoon and enjoyed the country’s distinctive atmosphere. After that memory-filled journey, they decided to begin their life together there.

Even today, most people believe Genton and Leonora met somewhere in Kosovo because their hometowns are only 40 minutes apart. Almost no one knows that dua.com brought them together: an app Leonora installed while looking for a game and Genton opened out of curiosity.

Leonora carefully preserves every message and photo from their earliest meetings. Screenshots of their conversations, the photo from the first date with her brother and the plane tickets from her secret visits are all kept like treasures. “One day I want to show our child how love brought us together,” she says.

They had planned to name a daughter “Dua” as a tribute to the app that united them, but Leonora’s sister used the name first. “She stole our name,” Leonora laughs, “but that’s all right; we will still find a beautiful name.”

“Genton is more reserved and introverted, while I am very extroverted,” Leonora says, explaining the balance in their relationship. “He calms me when I have too much energy, and I bring him back out into the world. We both understand the duties and responsibilities of marriage, and we respect one another.”

Speaking from Italy today, Genton wants to thank dua.com and share their story with everyone approaching their thirties who is still waiting for love.

Leonora, who knew from the first moment that she had found her future husband, puts it simply: “Do not judge too quickly; fate has a wonderful sense of irony. I always thought I would marry someone from a city, and Genton never wanted to live abroad. Now we are living together in a small Italian town.”

Their story proves that true love recognises no distance, tradition or timetable. All it takes is the courage to open your heart, even through an app you installed while looking for a game.