Australian woman annulled after fake Instagram wedding ceremony became real legal marriage

Summary

A woman in Australia had her marriage annulled after discovering that a fake Instagram wedding ceremony she participated in as a social media stunt was in fact a real legal marriage. The incident occurred in December 2023 when the woman, who met her partner through an online dating platform, attended a wedding event in Sydney that she believed was staged for the man’s Instagram account. The man, a social media influencer with over 17,000 followers, convinced her to participate in the ceremony without informing her it was legally binding. She only realized the marriage was real when he attempted to use it to apply for permanent residency in Australia. The woman found a notice of intended marriage that had been filed without her knowledge or signature, and a Melbourne judge granted the annulment in October 2024, ruling she had not given real consent to the marriage.