In 2025, Sam and Anna McKee were on safari in Botswana on their honeymoon when Sam was attacked by a hippo. The next 24 hours would change their life and their marriage forever. Sam McKee: Anna and I first met when we were 15 and started dating when we were 17.
We've been together for more than 14 years. Adventure has always been a big part of our relationship. We got engaged while snowboarding on the slopes of the Andes in Chile and got married in Portugal.
For our honeymoon, we wanted to do something unforgettable, so we booked a trip to Botswana. In our first few days there, we'd already seen elephants, lions, zebras, giraffes, hyenas, wild dogs and hippos. Then we were offered the chance to go out on a mokoro, a traditional dugout canoe used to travel through the Okavango Delta.
Before we set off, the guides pointed out a mother hippo and her calves in the distance and they warned us of the danger and said we would be avoiding that area. Anna McKee: From where we were you could see a mom hippo and her two babies there. She had her mouth wide open, and the guides told us she was displaying aggression and not to go anywhere near that area.
I remember Sam took a picture of her. We were supposed to be looking at plants in the lagoon, but at some point our mokoro drifted away from the rest of the group. It was just me, Sam and our guide.
The water got deeper, and suddenly we were much closer to the area we had been warned about. Sam: We were moving through the reeds when I heard this explosion of splashing behind me. I turned around and saw a hippo charging straight at the boat with its mouth open.
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