In guise of prank video, influencer tricks woman into marriage in Australia

An incident has come to light recently, wherein a woman from Australia had to get her marriage annulled after realising that the wedding ceremony she took part in for a social media stunt turned out to be a real wedding.

The woman was reportedly convinced by her partner, a social media influencer, who told her that he was making a ‘prank’ video for his Instagram account, BBC reported.

The publication reporting on the details events unfolded noted that it all began in September 2023, when these two people met in an online dating platform and began seeing each other. They were then living in Melbourne.

The woman accepted his proposal in December, and few days later was about to attend an event in Sydney. Her partner told her to carry a white dress along as it was the the theme of the event.

Quoting her deposition in the court documents, the publication added that upon reaching the venue, she was angered as well as shocked to see no guests except her partner, a photographer along with a friend and a celebrant.

She said, "So when I got there, and I didn't see anybody in white, I asked him, 'What's happening?'. And he pulled me aside, and 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."

However, her partner told her about him being a social media person and having more than 17,000 followers on Instagram and reassured her that it was not a real wedding as a civil marriage was only possible in a court.

Over persistent doubts, she also turned to her friend over a call and told her about the situation. Laughing at the situation, the friend told her that if the wedding was real they would have had to file a notice of intended marriage first.

Thus, having accepted her partner’s explanation, the woman went through the ceremony and she asserted that she was very happy to play along, making the ceremony look real.

As both of them were foreigners, things got weird when two months later, she was asked by her partner to add him as a dependant in her application for permanent residency in Australia.

The woman was under the impression that they were not married, however, her partner then revealed that the ceremony was real, the publication added as per woman’s testimony.

It further added that the woman eventually found the marriage certificate as well as a notice of intended marriage that was filed a month before her Sydney trip. The women maintained that she did not sign any such document and as per the court documents too, the signatures bore little resemblance to hers.

The woman 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."

The man, in his deposition, claimed that both of them had accepted his proposal and had agreed on getting married in an intimate ceremony.

The wedding was annulled in October 2024 under the circumstances that the woman did not provide her real consent for her participation in the same, as stated by the judge.

The judgement stated, "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," as quoted by the publication.