Woman discovers fake Instagram wedding was real

A woman in Australia has ended her marriage after realizing that the fake wedding she took part in on television was real.

The unsuspecting bride claimed her friend was a TV personality who made her attend the ceremony as a “prank” on her Instagram account.

He only realized that the marriage was real when he tried to use it to get a place to live in Australia.

A Melbourne judge upheld the dismissal after admitting the woman had been tricked into marrying her, in a ruling published on Thursday.

This amazing story started in September 2023 when the woman met her friend through online dating. They started seeing each other regularly in Melbourne, where they were living at the time.

In December of that year, the man proposed to the woman and she accepted.

Two days later, the woman went to another event with the man in Sydney. She was told that there would be a “white party” – where the guests would wear white clothes – and she was told to make a white dress.

But when he arrived he was “surprised” and “angry” to find no visitors other than his friend, a photographer, a photographer’s friend and a cheerleader, according to what he wrote in court documents.

“When I got there, and I didn’t see anyone wearing white, I asked him, ‘what’s going on?’. And he pulled me aside, and he told me that he’s planning a magical wedding for you to have. right, Instagram, because he wants to expand what he has, and he wants to start making money on his Instagram page,” he said.

He also said he would accept his claim that he was “a TV personality” who had 17,000 followers on Instagram. He also believed that a civil marriage could only take place if it was held in court.

However, he continued to worry. The woman called her friend and told her about her worries, but her friend “laughed” and said that it would be okay because if it was true, she should have written a document showing that she wanted to get married, which she did not do.

Encouraged, the woman went through with the ceremony where she and her partner exchanged vows and kissed in front of the camera. He added that he was happy at the time to “play” to “stand out”.

Two months later, her friend asked her to add him as a dependent on her application to stay in Australia. Both are foreigners.

When he told her they couldn’t because they weren’t technically married, he revealed that their marriage in Sydney was real, according to the woman’s testimony.

The woman later obtained their marriage certificate, and found a marriage proposal sent a month before their trip to Sydney – before they got married – which she said she had not signed. According to court documents, the signature on the notice does not exactly match the woman’s.

“I am angry because I did not know that it was a real marriage, and that he also lied from the beginning, and he also wants me to add him to my application,” he said. .

In his statement, the man said “they both agreed to this” and following his request, the woman agreed to marry him in an “intimate ceremony” in Sydney.

The judge ruled that the woman “was wrong about the nature of the ceremony” and “did not give real permission to participate” in the marriage.

“He believed he was acting. He called the incident ‘a prank.’ It was reasonable for him to take the form of the bride in all aspects of the tainted ceremony in order to strengthen the integrity of the video showing the legal marriage,” he said in the judgment.

The marriage was dissolved in October 2024.