A woman in Australia had her marriage annulled when she realized she had actually married in an online ceremony, which she believed was a sham.
The accidental bride, who did not want to reveal her identity, says that she was persuaded to marry by an Instagram influencer, who wanted to increase the number of followers.
She discovered that the marriage was real only when he tried to get permanent residency in Australia on that basis.
A judge in Melbourne granted the annulment of the marriage, because he believes that the woman was misled.
It all started in September 2023, when the woman met her partner on a dating platform.
They began seeing each other regularly in Melbourne, where they both lived at the time.
The man proposed to her in December, and she accepted it.
Two days later, she was invited to a “party in white” and told to dress appropriately.
When she arrived, she was “shocked” and “furious” to find no guests other than her partner, a photographer, and a few other people, according to her testimony in court.
“I asked him what was going on, and he took me aside and said that he organized the wedding as a joke, to increase the number of Instagram followers,” she testified.
She accepted this explanation, because he had more than 17,000 followers on Instagram.
In addition, she believed that a civil marriage is valid only if it is concluded before a court, and that they must announce their intention to marry two months in advance, in order to allow possible complaints.
They exchanged wedding rings and kissed in front of the cameras, and the woman said that at that moment she agreed “to try to make everything look real”.
Two months later, her partner asked her to name him as a dependent in an application for permanent residence in Australia that she was making on her own behalf.
Neither of them hold Australian citizenship.
When she told him she couldn’t because they weren’t technically married, he told her the ceremony in Sydney was real.
The woman later found their marriage certificate and discovered her partner had filed a notice of intended marriage a month before their trip to Sydney – before they even got engaged.
She claims that she did not sign the notification, although the signature looks like hers.
“I’m angry about the fact that I didn’t know I was actually getting married, and that he lied to me from the beginning,” she said.
The man claims they both agreed, and that she agreed to marry him in an “intimate ceremony” in Sydney.
The woman did not give real consent to the marriage, the judge ruled, annulling the marriage.
“She believed that everything was an act and a joke, so she agreed to the role,” the verdict reads.
The marriage was annulled in October 2024.
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Source: www.vijesti.me
