A couple in Australia had their marriage annulled after the bride said she didn’t genuinely consent.
The woman said she believed the ceremony was a “prank” being filmed for Instagram.
A judge ruled in her favor, saying it was likely the applicant believed she was just acting.
A couple in Australia had their marriage annulled after the bride testified in court that she thought the ceremony was part of a “prank” video orchestrated by the groom for social media clout.
In a family court judgment from October, which was made public this month, a judge declared the couple’s December 2023 marriage void.
The bride, 24, filed for the annulment in May 2024, arguing that the marriage to the groom, in his 30s, was a sham because she did not offer real consent.
She said she thought she was merely playing the role of a bride for a video that the groom, a social media influencer with over 17,000 followers, would post on Instagram.
The Guardian Australia was the first to report on the judgment.
The bride says she thought it was a ‘prank’
The couple, both originally from the same country, met on a dating platform in September 2023.
For legal reasons, their identities cannot be published.
In her affidavit, the bride said that after a brief period of dating, the groom invited her to Sydney in December 2023 to attend a “white party,” instructing her to wear a white dress.
Upon arriving at the venue, she said she was “shocked” to find out for the first time that he had “organized a wedding for us.”
She said she felt uncomfortable and told the groom she was leaving. However, she testified that she did not leave, and instead called a friend for advice.
The bride said the groom had told her it was a “simple prank” and that her friend assured her that she could not legally marry without a notice of intention to marry being filed.
During cross-examination, the bride testified: “He pulled me aside, and he told me that he’d organizing a prank wedding for his social media, to be precise, Instagram, because he wants to boost his content and wants to start monetizing his Instagram page.”
Video evidence presented in court showed the celebrant leading the couple through their vows. The judge said that nothing in the words used by the bride “revealed hesitation or uncertainty.”
“We had to act,” she said in cross-examination, “to make it look real.”
The couple got engaged 2 days earlier
In his affidavit, the groom disputed the bride’s account, claiming the ceremony was legitimate and resulted in a valid marriage.
He said the bride had accepted his marriage proposal, which she did not deny.
However, she said that while she did eventually intend to marry him, she didn’t expect to get married so soon after the proposal — just two days later.
In her affidavit, the bride said her culture would require either her parents to be present or to grant permission beforehand.
The judge wrote, “In my view, it beggars belief that a couple would become engaged in late December then married two days later.”
The judge added that a wedding celebrant had been retained over a month before the groom proposed, a notice of intention to marry had been filed in November, and the bride didn’t have a single friend or family member present.
The bride said she only found out the marriage was real in February last year when the groom, who was applying for refugee status, asked to be put as a dependent on her application for permanent residency.
In concluding remarks, the judge wrote: “On the balance of probabilities, in my view it is more probable than not that the applicant believed she was acting in a social media event on the day of the alleged ceremony, rather than freely participating at a legally sanctioned wedding ceremony.”
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