Two Daughters Pulled Off a Real-Life “Parent Trap” by Encouraging Their Divorced Mom and Dad to Get Back Together

Thanks to help from their daughters, a divorced couple in Ohio got remarried, and their sweet story is reminiscent of The Parent Trap. In 2014, Julie Shore and Scott Gaede split after 17 years of marriage. Six years later, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the former married couple found themselves involuntarily spending more time together. “It was forced proximity,” Shore explained to Today. “Neither of us were looking forward to spending time together.” 

The duo’s daughters, Rachel and Caroline, were also worried about the arrangement since their parents’ marriage and eventual divorce were contentious. “There was so much tension and conflict in our house,” Rachel recalled. “After they finally parted ways, we were like, ‘This is the right move.’”

Despite their own concerns and those of their daughters, Shore and Gaede wanted to make things civil between them. At the beginning of the pandemic, it was off to a rough start. However, at the end of the year, their daughters noticed that their parents actually liked being in one another’s presence. “There were authentically having a good time together, and it wasn’t a show they were putting on for my sister and myself,” Rachel clarified. 

According to Rachel, her parents didn’t realize they were falling in love until 2021. When Shore was standing next to her former husband at a funeral, it became clear to her. “Everything from the past fell away, and I realized that family was all that mattered and that the four of us needed to be together again,” Shore shared.

At the end of 2021, Shore and Gaede were living together. That was when Rachel and Caroline channeled their inner Hallie Parker and Annie James from The Parent Trap—a romantic comedy in which identical twin sisters separated at birth concoct a scheme to bring their divorced parents back together—by encouraging their dad to propose to their mom. In 2022, he asked his ex-wife to marry him again. 

The former couple tied the knot for the second time on December 28, 2023. Rachel posted about her parents’ nuptials on TikTok, which has gone viral with 7.3 million views. “WAR IS OVERRRRRR,” the text on the screen said. “Our parents are officially remarried and we are no longer children of divorce." Rachel also typed out “successful parent trap” as her caption.