In a grand, wood-panelled room usually reserved for weddings inside the quaint Jesmond Dene House here on Tyneside, Amanda Staveley began a relationship that supporters of Newcastle United will be praying proves a marriage made in heaven.
Just moments earlier news had landed of the completion of the £305million Saudi-led takeover, backed by the country's £700billion Public Investment Fund. And here was Staveley, the 48-year-old British businesswoman, fronting the deal as part of a consortium who now rank as the richest football-club owners in the world.
After completing her first round of broadcast interviews - interrupted briefly by the jubilant sound of car horns outside - Staveley invited Sportsmail to her hotel suite to discuss the takeover that has made world headlines. Not that the headlines were always kind.
Amanda Staveley wore a big smile after successfully leading a takeover of Newcastle United
Fans celebrated on the streets outside St James' Park following completion of the £305m deal
When she failed to buy the club in 2017 and was labelled a time-waster by Mike Ashley, she was branded a 'fraud' in some quarters. And again last year when the deal involving PIF collapsed.
'I remember those headlines,' she said. 'I thought it was dead last year. I was shocked. It was a tough day. But I'm tenacious. I'm still quite stunned that we've got to this day.
'I just thought it's the right club. It's the only club for us, for me, and I fell in love the first time I went to a match (in November, 2017). I just needed to find the right investment partners, and PIF are incredible partners. They are obviously very wealthy. And that's sometimes daunting, but they are very commercially astute and make sensible decisions.
'Their motivation is that it's a great club, and we think it's going to make the most incredible investment. We have the same ambitions as Manchester City and PSG in terms of trophies, absolutely, but that will take time.
'Do we want to win the Premier League within five to 10 years? Yes. This takeover is hugely transformative.'
Staveley has been here since Tuesday, her location kept secret as she and her team worked to complete the deal to buy the club from Ashley. One of the buzz phrases among her group in recent days has been 'life-changing' - for the fans and themselves.
Staveley's eyes widened when she was informed that more than 5,000 supporters had gathered outside St James' Park, setting off flares and spraying lager in the air in the seconds after the official announcement. At the same time, her husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi - managing director of Staveley's PCP Capital Partners - ran into the car park of Jesmond Dene House and into the arms of a grizzly-looking supporter,
