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Ms Gentele, who lives in Stockholm, described her husband's diary as that of a "young man who was madly in love" and a shy and sensitive teenager who was worried about his parents.

We knew each other for 10 whole minutes when he said that I was going to fall madly in love with him by the end of the night.

At 18, Melanie became pregnant after falling "madly in love" with a boy from her school.

"If I could have chosen my last words to Quincy before he made that transition, I would have to borrow something that Duke Ellington would always say: 'Quincy, I love you madly.'"

Obsessing about what their neighbours are doing, and spending madly in a bid to catch up, has led them down some dark roads in recent years.