Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
No fees, cancel anytime.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
All is fair in love and war, they say, but what would you really be willing to do for the one you love? People say that love makes us do crazy things, but you probably have to be head over heels to do some of the crazy things you'll read in this list. Researchers say that, on average, people fall in passionate love twice in their lives.
Perhaps it's the passion that makes us do wild things, but we'll let you be the judge of that as you sort through these stories. They come to you from the r/AskTheWorld subreddit, where one netizen prompted others to share by asking: "What's the craziest thing someone has done for love in your country?"
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Canada
Canada - The story of Trevor Greene and more specifically, his girlfriend Deborah. In 2006, he was a soldier deployed to Afghanistan. He received an axe to the head leaving him heavily brain damaged, generally unable to speak, unable to walk.
The doctors told Deborah to cut her losses, that he was done. For years straight, she assisted him, held him, spoke to him, and helped Trevor recover. Slowly, over time, he regained his ability to speak. To move. To function. With Deborah by his side, Trevor became a man again. For their wedding in 2010, Trevor was able to stand again on his own. By 2012, he was walking again.
And now he walks, he talks, he gives speeches. For all intents and purposes, Trevor Greene is back. And it is entirely because of Deborah’s dedication to seeing Trevor recover. Long before the promise of in sickness and in health, Deborah Greene showed what being dedicated to your partner means.
RELATED:
#2
South Africa
Regina Brooks from South Africa, during apartheid era South Africa it was illegal for a black person and a white person to be in a relationship. Like go to jail illegal.
So when the very white Regina fell in love with and was impregnated by a black man she decided to keep both of them out of jail by pretending to be colored and claiming that as her legal defense. So for the entirety of her court case she only spoke in Zulu and pretended to not know English or Afrikaans, she carried her child on her back and wrapped her hair. She won and was legally declared colored (a real legal status and racial group in South Africa) which made her relationship legal.
Until the end of apartheid she lived her life as a colored woman.
#3
Ukraine
Luigi Pedutto and Mokryna Yurzuk. They met in a PoWs camp in Austria in 1943. Mokryna had a newborn daughter, and Luigi helped take care of her, sharing what he was able to get. He also sewed Mokryna a warm coat with his own hands from scraps of fabric he was able collect around the camp. They were separated after the war ended - the local authorities deported both of them back to their home countries, and Mokryna got stuck behind the Iron Curtain. But they continued to remember each other, and were finally able to meet again in 2004, almost 60 years later. We have a monument in their honor, located on the Bridge of Lovers in Kyiv, and all newlyweds take pictures near it, because it is believed that this will bring long love).
#4
India
In 1975, a Swedish student named Charlotte von Schedvin met an Indian street portrait artist, PK Mahanandia, in New Delhi when she asked him to draw her portrait. The two quickly fell in love and even married in India, but Charlotte eventually had to return home to Sweden. PK promised Charlotte he would come to Sweden on his own. With almost no money for travel, PK sold most of his belongings and in 1977 began an incredible journey by bicycle, riding nearly 8,000 km across several countries in Asia and Europe. After about four months on the road, he finally reached Sweden and reunited with Charlotte, keeping the promise he made to her. The couple later settled in Sweden and remained together for decades till now.
#5
United States Of America
Not crazy per se, but the couple whose court case lifted all bans against interracial marriage in the US, and set the precedent to legalizing same-gender marriage. They were arrested and exiled from Virginia at one time. They remained together until his passing. Their last name was fittingly Loving.
FlamingZombies 18 hours ago
And if the GQP and Uncle Clarence get their way, Loving would be overturned. Along with Obergefell and Griswold.
#6
United States Of America
Tab Hunter and Anthony Perkins would go on double dates with actresses assigned by the studio so they could actually spend time together.
#7
Nepal
A old guy made a road through rocky hill for his family (9 out of 11 members of the family were blind).
#8
Brazil
Chica da Silva and João Fernandes de Oliveira
Chica was a Black woman, who began a relationship with perhaps the most powerful man in Brazil at the time, João, who was sent by the King of Portugal to oversee the diamond mines where she lived. He freed Chica, and she wanted to go to the church of the rich people, but she wasn't accepted. Seeing this, João built a very expensive church so that Chica could go. She also dreamed of sailing, but the rich people didn't want her to go either. João built a huge lake, put a boat in it, and Chica was able to navigate.
#9
United States Of America
Not my country, but years ago I read a story in a book on GI fraternisation trials. That story will never leave me in this life: the GI was stupidly young, 17 or 18. He started a relationship with a 16 year old German girl and was actually jailed for that and sent back to the US. After his (dishonorable) discharge (this was draft though - so don't quote me on terms), he immediately sought a position with the merchant marine with a ship going to France and the Netherlands. Once they reached European shores, he (I guess the audacity of youth) jumped overboard (yes, on purpose) and swam to shore for literally hours. Crazily enough he both survived and managed to make his way from the Netherlands to Germany to find her. He found her! There were discussions, but in the end he was allowed to marry her and wasn't put on any kind of trial again. They emigrated to the US where they both passed away in a nursing home in the 1990s.
#10
Bangladesh
Bangladeshi woman braves river, tigers and security to meet her lover in India
Edit: forgot to mention earlier that she was arrested pretty much instantly.
"However, Krishna has been arrested for illegally entering the territory of India. Sources claim she will be handed over to Bangladesh High Commission for deport."
#11
Latvia
Not exactly in my country but from my country
"Over the next 20 years, Leedskalnin constructed a massive structure that he called "Rock Gate" and dedicated, in his own words, to the girl who had left him years before. Working alone and mostly at night, Leedskalnin eventually quarried and sculpted more than 1,100 short tons (997,903 kg) of oolite limestone into an architectural and engineering landmark that would later be known as the Coral Castle. He used various basic tools available under his modest means including salvaged timber and old automobile parts. First, he built a house out of limestone blocks and wood, then he gradually constructed the stone structure for which he is now famous. With a reserved personality, he eventually opened the Coral Castle to the public, offering tours for 10 cents.
When people were asking Leedskalnin how he had moved all of the heavy stone on his own, he usually replied, "I understand the laws of weight and leverage and I know the secrets of the people who built the pyramids", referring to the Great Pyramid of Giza. Some local residents later remembered that as school children they had field trips to the construction site of the future Coral Castle, and Leedskalnin personally explained manual methods of his work.
In the 1920s, the structure with an assortment of sculpted stones was located in Florida City; then, in the mid-1930s, Leedskalnin hired a truck with a driver to move it to its present location on a 10-acre (4.0 ha) site in the adjacent Homestead, Florida. Leedskalnin was an eccentric and lived on an exclusive diet of only crackers and sardines.[8] In his later years, he starved himself.".
Michael None 3 hours ago
I went to coral castle on my first trip to Florida. The structure is amazing. There is a door two feet thick and 10 feet high that swings with the effort of one finger. It cannot be understated how impressive it is.
#12
Japan
In Okinawa. During summer of 1986 A male dog named Shiro and his family moved to a smaller island named Aka. The dog started to miss his girlfriend very much and wished to be next to Marilyn. He would swim roughly 3 kilometers across the sea daily to visit Marilyn who is on the other island.
#13
Portugal
Pedro I of Portugal fell deeply in love with Inês de Castro, who had come to Portugal as a lady-in-waiting to his wife. After his wife passed, Pedro continued the relationship, but the Portuguese court feared the influence of Inês’s powerful Castilian family. In 1355, Pedro’s father, ordered Inês to be executed while Pedro was away. When Pedro later became king, he took brutal revenge on those responsible and declared that he had secretly married Inês before her sentence. According to legend, he had her body exhumed, crowned as queen, and forced the Portuguese nobles to kneel and swear allegiance to her by kissing the hand of her corpse.
#14
Netherlands
A couple of mixed religion couldn't be buried in the same cemetery so they got each a grave on the opposite side of a wall dividing the 2 cemeteries.
They got each a tombstone with hands reaching the other over the wall.
#15
New Zealand
I meet this women online, we chatted for 12 months, I then flew half way around the world to meet her. We’ve been together 27 years. She was from Poland. And I’m still madly in love with her.
#16
United States Of America
John Wojtowicz attempted to rob a bank for his trans wife’s gender affirming surgery in 1972, which in turn inspired the film Dog Day Afternoon, starring Al Pacino and John Cazale.
#17
Ireland
Joseph Mary Plunkett married his wife Grace Gifford seven hours before his excecution for being a signatory to the Declaration of the Irish republic in 1916.
When Grace got word he was to be excecuted the previous day, she purchased a wedding ring, persuaded a priest to marry them, and convinced the British army officer in charge to allow it. They were married with two prison officers as witnesses, allowed 15 minutes together before being seperated, then Plunkett received his sentence the next day
#18
South Africa
Thabo Bester and Nandipha Magudumana. He was imprisoned here in South Africa. For some reason, a very high profile aesthetic doctor/social media personality (Nandipha) started talking to him in jail via letters. Soon she was visiting him regularly.
They fell in love, and she divised a plan to help him escape. She stole a body from a mortuary, bribed prison employees to start a fire in his cell, replaced Thabo with the dead body she stole, and got Thabo out the jail dressed in stolen guard's uniform.
He then moved into her multi million rand Sandton home and lived in disguise. The whole country thought he wasn't alive. Until... an amateur sleuth/housewife spotted him shopping in Woolworths and released his photo to the media.
Nandipha then abandoned her child and went on the run with Thabo, attempting to cross the border into a neighboring country. They were both caught and sentenced. It captured the whole nation for a while. There was a really great Netflix documentary on it - "Beauty and the Bester".
#19
Albania
In 1338, Robert of Anjou, king of Naples, sent his daughter Hélène of Anjou to sail to Morea (modern day southern Greece) for a political marriage with a local French gentleman. Her ship was caught in a storm during the journey and landed in Durrës, Albania. There, she met with Andrea I Thopia, who ruled one of the most prominent Albanian principalities in the area at the time. The two fell in love and instead of continuing her way to Morea, Hélène married Andrea and had two children with him, one of whom would become Karl Thopia, one of the most notable 14th century Albanian rulers. Robert was furious of this, but 4 years after the marriage had been established, so in 1342, he invited them both to Naples to reconcile, but then had them both executed when they arrived. This also created a power vacuum which gave way for Stefan Dusan of Serbia to conquer the northern half of Albania until Karl Thopia came of age and liberated it from Dusan's successor.
#20
Sri Lanka
One guy hijacked a plane with demands to be reunited with his wife and kid.
#21
France
I met my husband doing volunteering in August 2000 (only 1.5 weeks in the same place) in France. Had one date, then he moved back to the UK (I couldn't speak English). A month later, I went to visit him for a weekend. On boxing day 2000, I moved in with him to England. In June 2001, he asked me to marry him. We are still together and have three kids. As I am writing this, he is next door working, and I am probably even more in love with him (even if sometimes I just want to strangle him! 😁). So yeah I moved country to follow someone I barely knew and I couldn't even speak the language.
My grandparents met at a dance. He actually tease one of his friends so he could stop him asking my grand mother to dance. She was visiting from Paris, a city girl from a baker's family. He was a country guy, back from fighting in North Africa and Italy at the end of WW2. Three months later they were married and stayed in love to the end. My grandfather would for no reason buy her flowers just to make her smile till the end.
My great grandfather was a French young soldier during WW1. He was captured and sent to a salt mine and survived eating slugs. He managed to escape. He made his way back to the North of France, and hid in a farm to escape German soldiers. The farmer's daughter found him and nurse him back to health (while still hidden). Once he was well enough he went back to the war but told her he would be back for her after the war... Which he did.
My parents? Well not as romantic. Dad was delivering a package to an office. Fell madly in love with the lady at reception. A few months later , they were married even though his family disapproved because she was French, they had already picked up a bride for him, and my mother had a disability. They are still married to this day.
#22
India
A guy named Bal Kishun Ram who constructed a Temple of his wife after she passed away.
#23
United States Of America
We had the astronaut love triangle, where astronaut Lisa Nowak supposedly wore diapers while she drove 1,000 miles from Houston, TX to Orlando, FL to confront her astronaut ex-boyfriend’s lover. She was charged after pepper spraying Colleen Shipman, an Air Force captain who had been romantically linked to the boyfriend, William Oefelein. She had a bunch of suspicious items in the trunk of the car she had stolen from her estranged husband for the trip, like gloves, a folding knife, a trench coat, etc.
Lisa followed Colleen from the baggage claim at the Orlando airport to the parking lot, where she pepper sprayed her. Colleen drove to a security station, and Lisa was quickly caught.
#24
Sweden
But true love knows no boundaries. And so the two of them develop a daring plan: Hans Christian is to learn how to fly in order to take Isolde over the Iron Curtain. After nine months and forty hours of flying, he is ready. As a new pilot the young Swede flies off to bring the love of his life to freedom...
#25
United States Of America
Well. This is creepy not endearing lol.
Hospital Tech Carl Tanzler (Key West, 1930s) became obsessed with a TB patient Elena de Hoyos, paid for her burial, visited her mausoleum, took her body 2 years later and kept it for 7 years trying to preserve her w wax. Her sister found out and turned him in. Never got convicted bc the statute of limitations had expired.
#26
Egypt
In the beginning of the 1900s up until the fall of the monarchy in Egypt, there was hundreds of stories of girls from influential families and noble families that would run away and marry lower ranking people, my great grandmother was one of them she married the son of a small tradesman which was my great grandfather and she was disowned by them and been denied all her inheritance.
Also heard from my grandmother from the other side of the family of a woman who did the same and settled in their village she used to teachher how to braid her hair with different styles.
I guess it was a trend since there're multiple black and white film with similar stories 😅.
#27
Iran
Yaghoot Khanum (ms. Ruby) was an iranian woman who came to Azadi(Shahyad) square for more than 30 years , almost everyday dressed fully in red(hence the ruby) According to those who spoke to her, she had a date once with a man she desperately loved around the square, but he never showed. So for years she went there and waited for him to be there and allegedly gave relationship advice to young people who came to see her.
Panda Kicki 17 hours ago
Not sure that kind of obsession is a good qualification for giving relationship advice. The line between love and mental illness sometimes goes thin.
#28
United Kingdom
My grandmother left Manchester, UK to move to New Jersey, US with my grandfather who was a military engineer stationed in the UK during WW2. They met at a roller rink.
Can't imagine anyone doing something like that now and if they did I'd probably think they were insane.
#29
Slovenia
Fought against Christians, survived a six month siege, becoming a sole survivor of a charge he led, and then converted to Christianity after finding out his girl had converted herself meanwhile. (Baptism on the Savica, epic poem by France Prešeren).
#30
United Kingdom
Not sure love is the right word but Henry VIII created a new religion.
#31
Philippines
Philippines:
climbing a power tower after breakup.
In Toledo City, Cebu, a 19-year-old man climbed a 200-meter electric tower after his girlfriend left him. Police had to shut off the power lines and negotiate for hours until the girlfriend came and convinced him to come down. ..the things we do for love aarghhh.
You May Like 128 Short Love Quotes To Melt Your Partner’s Heart 150 Self-Love Quotes To Help You Be Kind To Yourself 140 Romantic Love Sayings To Warm Up Even The Coldest Of Hearts
Saimonas Lukošius
Miglė
Eligijus Sinkunas
Related on Bored Panda
