An Australian woman who got married as a prank to a man she met on a dating platform on the latter’s insistence has had the marriage annulled by a court. The bride told the court that she only took part in the ceremony believing it was a social media ruse, designed to inflate the likes and followers count of the man she had met a few months ago, as per a report in BBC.
According to documents published by the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia, the unnamed woman was in her 20s when she met the man in his 30s on Tinder in September 2023. They met a day after the match and started dating. The Melbourne couple soon began planning a trip to Sydney as the man said he wanted to take her there in December.
Once in Sydney, the man proposed to her and invited her to an “all-white party” where all guest wear white, two days later. The woman did not suspect the invitation as the trip was pre-planned and they had previously attended a similarly-themed party in Queensland.
However, once the woman arrived at the venue in white, which as per court documents, was not a wedding dress, she did not see anybody else wearing the colour.
“When I got there, and I didn’t see anybody in white, I asked him, ‘What’s happening?’” she told the court.
“He told me that he’s organising a prank wedding for his social media. To be precise, Instagram, because he wants to boost his content and wants to start monetising his Instagram page.”
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She told the court that she played along because the groo told her he could have caused anyone for the video but chose her so she wouldn’t feel jealous.
The woman said she only discovered that the prank wedding was real and legal when she came to know that the man was seeking asylum. He asked her to add his name as a dependant to her application for permanent residency. She said the groom told her he had “organised the marriage to help him”.
The judge in his verdict said it “beggars belief” that the bride would marry the groom “less than two days” after accepting his proposal.
“The applicant did not have a single family member or friend present at the alleged wedding ceremony. She was religious,” read the judgment.
“Precisely why she would participate in a civil marriage and not in a church marriage ceremony went unexplored. It made no sense to me that she would.”
