Candace Curry, 39, admitted that despite wanting to resent the person who had become stepmother to her 14-year-old daughter, her ‘plans were foiled’ when she realised the good person she was.
"You accepted my daughter from the very start and have unconditionally loved both her and her daddy, that’s a true gift to all of us," Candace wrote in her open letter to Ashley Parish, her ex’s new bride.
"You’ve included my daughter in everything you do and make her feel loved and accepted. You put her relationship with her daddy above yours and only a brave and courageous woman knows how to do that with such grace.
"Precious woman, you are a rare and beautiful gem. God bless you and I love you."
Candace opened up about the first moment she met Ashley, and how she felt a ‘twinge of jealousy’ for this ‘stunningly beautiful’ woman now sharing her former husband, and daughter’s, life.
"I promise to always respect your input for our daughter," wrote Curry, and added that she would never let Parish feel that ‘you are not her mother.’
She signs off: "Precious woman, you are a rare and beautiful gem. God bless you and I love you."