A woman has spoken out after ending up officially married despite believing it was ‘a prank’ ceremony for a social media stunt.
In September 2023, an unnamed woman from Melbourne, Australia met up with a man she matched with on an online dating platform, they then began a romantic relationship and in December, the man proposed.
If you thought that was whirlwind, then imagine the woman’s shock two days after the proposal attending a ‘white party’ in Sydney only to arrive and find no other guests there, but just her partner – – a social media influencer – a photographer, a friend of the photographer and a celebrant.
Court documents state, as per the BBC, that the woman was told she would be attending a party where everyone would be dressed in clothing of the color white and so she should pack a white dress.
She says she went to the event in the belief there would be multiple other guests there, however, when she arrived she found there were only a handful of people and she ‘didn’t see anybody in white’.
When the woman asked her partner what was happening, he allegedly said he’d ‘organize[d] a prank wedding for his social media page’.
With over 17,000 followers on Instagram, her partner reportedly revealed he wanted to ‘boost his content’ and ‘start monetising his Instagram page’ and thought a fake wedding would help do this.
Concerned, the woman rang a friend, however, they said without having filed a notice of intended marriage first, the marriage wouldn’t be real.
Combined with the fact the woman thought a civil marriage is only valid if the proceeding is held in court, she went ahead with it, appearing happy in footage from the ceremony, although now noting she was acting as such to ‘make it look real’ and ‘play along’ with the prank.
It was only two months later when the penny dropped.
The woman’s partner turned around and asked her to help him secure his application for permanent residency in Australia by making him a dependant – it was ultimately easier for him to remain there if actually married.
She pointed out the wedding was a ‘prank’ and he admitted it was actually real, the woman later finding the marriage certificate and seeing a notice of intended marriage had been filed a month before the ‘fake wedding’ took place, even prior to him popping the question.
She said: “I’m furious with the fact that I didn’t know that that was a real marriage, and the fact that he also lied from the beginning, and the fact that he also wanted me to add him in my application.”
Despite the man claiming the pair had ‘both agreed to these circumstances,’ a judge rule the woman ‘did not provide real consent to her participation’ in the nuptials.
The judge resolved: “She believed she was acting. She called the event ‘a prank’. It made perfect sense for her to adopt the persona of a bride in all things at the impugned ceremony so as to enhance the credibility of the video depicting a legally valid marriage.”
In October 2024, the marriage was subsequently annulled.
