Songfacts®:

• "Not Real Love (I Wish I'd Never Met You)" is a soulful anthem divided into two parts. The first part is written from the perspective of a girl determined to save her friend from a toxic relationship. The second part is written from the perspective of the friend after she finally decides to leave her good-for-nothing boyfriend, expressing her regret that she ever met the guy.
  
  Speaking to MTV in 2006, Joss Stone called it "a calm 'f--k you' that just needed to be done." She added: "I had to get that one out of me, and it was inspired by that feeling of, 'I wish I never met you, because then, I wouldn't feel anything at all.' When you come out of a bad relationship, you just kind of wish it never happened in the first place, because you would never have to feel that aftermath."
• In an interview with The Guardian in 2007, Stone confirmed this song was about her ex-boyfriend Beau Dozier. "I'm still friends with him, and we wrote a song together," she said. "But I still feel the pain from the things that he did. There are so many stories I could tell that I probably shouldn't because I don't want anybody to see him in a bad light."
  
  Dozier, the son of Motown legend Lamont Dozier, started seeing Stone after he helped her to write "Spoiled" for her 2004 sophomore album, Mind Body & Soul. The pair dated for several months before ending their relationship in late 2005.
• "Not Real Love (I Wish I'd Never Met You)" was partly inspired by the 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, the movie depicts a couple who undergo a surgical procedure to erase each other from their memories following a breakup. Stone told Blues & Soul in 2007: "I wish sometimes the hurt and anger could just go away. That I could have the memory erased. Actually that was Beau and my favorite movie. I love weird movies like that."
• This song was supposed to appear on Stone's third album, Introducing Joss Stone, but it ultimately found itself excluded from the final tracklisting. Despite its omission, and despite the fact it's rarely been performed live, the demo version of "Not Real Love (I Wish I'd Never Met You)" has become a cult favorite among fans.