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36 Of The Fastest Times Couples Said “I Do” And “I’m Done” – And What Really Happened
Sometimes, a couple can look like a match made in heaven both to themselves and everyone around. And so, in such cases, the next common step is a wedding - why not get committed to each other legally, if you're so perfect together?
The only thing is that sometimes marriage is what shows the cracks in that perfect relationship that weren't visible before. Or maybe they were ignored. And so, marriages fall apart, sometimes way faster than anyone would have guessed.
More info: Reddit
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#1
3 Weeks. My brothers 3rd bride found out on the wedding night that he had no money and my father owned his house, car etc....
She ended up in jail that night for hitting my brother. I did the pictures for the wedding because it was his 3rd wedding. Low budget.
I put together a photo album for the family with her mugshot as the last picture.
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#3
I got divorced in less than a year. She was cheating, delivered a kid about 7 months after the divorce.
There is no one set time for how long a couple has to be together before tying the knot. According to this poll, on average, modern couples tend to spend quite a lot of time together before getting married – around 4.9 years.
That’s due to the fact that people like to get to know their significant other in all the good and the bad before committing to them legally. After all, you cannot really learn everything about a person within a few months or so; such knowledge only comes with time and various experiences.
#4
I know a couple who at the reception he smashed the cake in her face and she turned around and said forget it I want to break up.
#5
I had a cousin who got married to her boyfriend and they were divorced within 6 months. Turns out they knew they weren’t going to work before the wedding, but they really wanted to have a party lol. It’s put a huge strain on her relationship with her parents considering they were the ones who foot the bill.
#6
Some years ago, my best friend took me as his plus one to the wedding of his childhood best friend. Let's call her Jane. Jane and her new husband had been together for years, owned a house together, etc. Great wedding, gorgeous ceremony, fun reception. Their vows were quite beautiful.
Two months later, I was with my best friend out at the bar when he was like "Oh no, don't look over at that table." Of course I looked, but didn't recognize who was sitting there. My friend was like "That's Jane's ex-husband. Remember? We were at their wedding."
I was like... "EX husband? But like... that was two months ago?"
Apparently they broke up a few weeks after the wedding. I don't know why.
And the thing is that this approach is kind of working. According to the study, which surveyed 3,000 married folks, the likelihood of divorce decreases by 50% when a couple dates for 3 or more years before getting engaged.
Still, dating for such a relatively long time doesn’t inherently guarantee a long and successful marriage; people who spend more than half of their lives together still end up separating.
#7
A friend of a friend had a destination wedding in Hawaii and divorced within a week of returning. Apparently they had a series of huge fights BEFORE the wedding but didn't want to cancel and ruin everybody's plans.
EDIT: Since everyone keeps pointing it out - I don't know if they did or didn't sign the marriage license, so they may or may not have been legally married, but they broke up and went their separate ways immediately after the wedding.
Mel in Georgia 3 hours ago
Hope they returned people's gifts if they knew where this was heading.
#8
My youngest brother. Got married on Saturday. Went on 4 day honeymoon. Got back on Wed evening. Filed for divorce Thursday. Everyone knew it would not last. They even got in a fight at the wedding reception !
#9
My cousin cheated on her husband almost from day one (found out she'd been cheating before the wedding and resumed right after the honeymoon), and they separated after 3 months, divorce was official 3 days short of five months.
And sometimes it takes even less time for the marriage to end. Just take a look at today’s list – it’s full of marriages that can barely be called that due to how short they were. From 6 months to 3 weeks to 55 hours (looking at you Britney Spears and Jason Alexander)... It all depends on what you consider a short period of time, but neither of these screams “long marriage”, do they?
Interestingly, it’s said that the shortest recorded marriage took only 3 minutes… Can you imagine? Just 3 minutes! This took place back in 2024 in Kuwait. Apparently, when the couple was walking out after the ceremony, the bride tripped and heard her new husband mocking her.
#10
100% real. Starting with this because honestly it still blows my mind.
Some guy I worked with had a kid with his girlfriend. A year or so later they got married, proper wedding with friends and family.
The next morning they’d put a Facebook post up saying that they’ve decided not to stay together and were separating.
Since divorced.
#11
My cousin. Got married mid-June, when we visited for the July 4th holiday, he had moved out. She told us that he got mad at her during the wedding, never slept in at the house again and filed for divorce. She literally dated him for years and after their wedding, never spoke to him again.
Michael Largey 3 hours ago
Never speaking to your spouse after the wedding will reduce the stress level in many marriages.
#12
In japan couples can divorce simply by going to city hall and doing the paperwork--excluding getting there and any waiting time, it might take a half hour. One person can even do it on behalf of the couple by taking their partner's hanko (personal seal) and doing the paperwork alone.
Norfolk and good 2 hours ago
In the UK, it takes a minimum of six months, and that's assuming that it's straightforward and both parties agree. Otherwise you could be waiting a lot longer.
This was enough of a reason for her to go to the judge and ask for annulment of their contract. Basically, they didn’t even make it out of their wedding ceremony as newlyweds before it was called off. Ouch! At the same time, maybe she dodged a bullet – what kind of man makes fun of his wife in such a precious occasion, even if she trips?
Well, reasonable or not, short marriages typically aren’t that short. Again, it all depends on how you look at it. Even a year isn’t that much in the grand scheme of things but imagine getting stuck with a person you know you don’t belong with, or even worse, you can’t stand for a year. That’s such a long time! Even half of this time doesn’t seem pleasant in such a case.
#13
My father and I were on a 20 acre working ranch. After my mother left us I think he wanted to make sure that I had a mother so he married pretty quickly and she moved in. I was 6ish years old so I don't remember much. From what I was told by my grandparents that as soon as she was expected to do work on the ranch she divorced him. I was told it was 2 weeks.
Michael Largey 3 hours ago
The wife of a friend of mine died, and he remarried six months later. "She doesn't know that I don't really love her, but the kids needed a mother." I think that was the exact moment I stopped regarding him as a friend.
#14
I have an in-law. 10 marriages. Not 9. He is up to 10. No exaggeration.
#15
Severely narcisstic friend made it 3-4 months I think. He had an early summer wedding and one of his friends had one a couple months later in the same year. He couldn't stand that everyone stopped congratulating him on getting married and had shifted focus to the friend's upcoming wedding instead, so he tried to steal the spotlight by telling people that he was getting divorced at the friend's rehearsal dinner. He lost interest after the friend's wedding was over, but his new bride was so angry that she demanded they go through with it.
So, while short marriages might seem rather entertaining looking from the side, sometimes they have rational reasons to happen this way.
What is the shortest marriage you know of? If you’re open to it, please share about it in the comments!
#16
Me. I lasted 9 months.
Got married for a visa to be able move to china with my husband whom I'd been with for 12 years since the first week of university. A month later he left for china and I was gonna join him when I found a job but I immediately realised how much happier I was without him. One day, 5 months after he left, I kind of woke up and realised he'd been emotionally violent. That he'd forced me to be intimate with him on multiple occasions, properly hit me a few times but physically hurt me often, shouted at me daily and that he isolated me from my family and friends. I grew up in a bad family so I just sort of blocked out the worst of it and carried on. It took being alone for the first time to feel safe enough to process a whole lifetime of trauma. I flew to China to break up with him and he acted like I was going to change my mind even as I tearfully left for the airport.
Years later I'm with the most peaceful, kind man I've ever met, we have a bunch of wonderful friends and we hang out with my good family members all the time. Life is good when you don't have the wrong people in it.
#17
My cousin got married and found out she was pregnant within a week. Her husband said he wasn’t ready to be a dad yet and they got the marriage annulled. I was told they planned for kids, but he literally just didn’t want to have them that soon. She had the baby and remarried. The ex-husband has never met the kid.
Another cousin married a guy and he completely took down the mask after the wedding. Stopped working, stopped doing anything around the house, then started being mean, etc. She found out he had a bunch of secrets, including legal trouble in another state. I wanna say it took about 6 months til the divorce was final.
Mel in Georgia 3 hours ago
I got pregnant within a month of marrying my husband - unplanned. But - we had wanted kids eventually so just went with it. Now we're young enough to enjoy our grandkids by that son for a good long while - glad we made that choice! And glad it *was* a choice.
#18
I was a bridesmaid and went to a joint bachelor-bachelorette party in Vegas. At a pool party during the day, all the married groomsmen cheated on their wives right in front of us. The marriage lasted about 6 months… guess why.
#19
Had one buddy get engaged on the 2nd date. Wedding 4 months later. Divorce started 8 months later. They never actually lived together.
Another co-worker had been dating for 4(?) years, 3 months after the wedding they split up.
#20
I got married about 40 years ago . About 2 months in, it had been just weird and he was super needy. I mentioned a concert I was going to get tickets to. He said I wasnt going to do that. I called in sick the next day, packed what I wanted and was out of there. The who marriage, including the mandatory 6 month wait period to divorce, was just over 8 months.
Mel in Georgia 3 hours ago
One and done - so much better than giving the controlling jerk a second ... third ... fourth chance, as so many people do.
#21
Mine. He cheated on me after 9 months of marriage. I found her clothing in my laundry basket and it was part of her work uniform so I knew who she was. She was a mutual friend. I took that woman out for her birthday. Worked out great though because I have bow been married to the man of my dreams for almost 20 yrs.
#22
Friend got married in a hurry and divorced in a bigger hurry. Turned out she had borderline personality disorder and made a false domestic violence claim against him. Total length of the relationship from meet to filing for divorce was less than a year.
#23
About 6 months
One of my Marines from my second command. By all appearances his marriage was pretty solid. I had become fast friends with the dude and had gone over to their place several times, to the point that I even stored my stuff & my car at their house during our deployment. Anyway like three months I to deployment I'm out on the smoke pit and he's introducing me to this girl he's got a thing for, and she was sweet on him too. I asked him about it later, and turns out that not only had he and his wife married like right before I got to the unit, but that she had served him divorce papers literally the week we were leaving for our deployment. I didn't find out more til we got back from deployment and I went to go pick my stuff up. Turns out the dude was generally pretty bad behind the scenes (not jerk, just a messy person) and 175 **THOUSAND DOLLARS** in debt and he wasn't even old enough to legally drink yet, so the lady left his a*s and his issues.
Second fastest was also the military. One of my childhood friends had joined the navy a couple years after me, and she met some dude in "A" school and they hit it off real fast and real hard. She even asked me for advice and while I recommended waiting, they were still married shortly after leaving "A" school (which at the time was about 14 weeks). They had a kid together and divorced within a year. About 14 months altogether from meeting to divorce.
Mel in Georgia 3 hours ago
My daughter has a friend who was in the Army. Met someone at basic training - bam, got married. Divorced in less than a year. Met someone at her first assignment - bam, got married. Divorced in less than a year. Got out of the Army - hooked up with a childhood friend - bam, got married AGAIN. We're hoping this one lasts. She's 32.
#24
I worked with a Scottish guy when I was much younger and he matter of fact told me that he was married for only 3 days. Said he told his wife he was going out to buy the fish and chips and never went back. I unfortunately never asked for any more details.
#25
Mine was fast and I'm going through the damages atm.
10 year relationship, married 9 months before wife moving out last summer.
I spent maybe $100K on the wedding and everyone that attended has dropped me from their lives.
I’m surviving tho…
Without mentioning how toxic our relationship was, I got into a nasty online gambling dependance in the early months that resulted in me depleting all my savings and cards, stealing from my family, friends, and ultimately my wife.
I’ve taken full accountability for my actions and self-excluded. Paid her back a chunk and plan to pay the rest.
Happened beginning of last year, I’m still in disbelief and picking myself up.
#26
Got the papers back from the celebrant before he left and burnt them on the spot. Bride gave a speech about how now they were married everything was going to change.
Michael Largey 3 hours ago
Bride believed in surprise announcements of change and immediately got one.
#27
I know some celebs who split quicker, but I had a buddy who divorced his wife after 2 months because she stopped being intimate with him.
#29
A guy that I know got married in a ridiculously expensive ceremony in the 90s (northern UK) and there was all the usual back slapping and plaudits during the speeches etc etc. His wife was really nice and from a good family.
Within three weeks they’d split up and decided to divorce and he was banging a woman with massive knockers that everyone called ‘Jane the train’. I’ll let you imagine why they called her that…..!
#30
I got married in June (tried to call it off day of, groomsmen talked me out of it), asked for a divorce in October. He was a pain in my back and dragged it out so it technically took longer.
#31
7 days, they were both locked up for domestic violence on day 3.
Michael Largey 3 hours ago
A bridal couple I knew were given a pair of boxing gloves as a wedding present. It didn't last a year.
#32
Girl a year older than me in high school. When she got married her family renovated the cathedral before the wedding. Every member of the wedding party had their own limousine and then a horse and carriage to the receptions. She had like a three-stage reception based on who you were and whether you got to attend certain levels of reception one didn't even include the bride and groom. All in all her parents spent a little over 2 million dollars making this wedding happen with the renovation and everything under the sun and they were divorced in under 18 months.
Michael Largey 3 hours ago (edited)
Has there been a study to test my theory that the length of the marriage is inversely proportional to the cost of the wedding?
#33
Guy admitted on the wedding night he didn't actually love her. Annulled in less than a week, I think.
#34
Just heard a family member and his wife mutually cheated on each other and are getting divorced. Made it just over 1 year. Who else has some crazy stories?
#35
Some acquaintances got married and the bride cheated during the reception. Groom called the JOP the next day and said don’t bother filing the papers.
#36
My cousin got married, found out she was cheating while on their honeymoon. I think they got an annulment.
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Mel in Georgia 3 hours ago
My husband got married to his GF in California before shipping off to the Philippines so she could have benefits while she finished her degree. She visited once for the summer and hated it. Then he got assigned to North Carolina and asked her to join him. She didn't want to live in the South. So that was that. Lasted 18 months, maybe? Somewhat ironically, she ended up living in Tennessee (also in the South) for most of her life! Sometimes life gives you an oops marriage. Turned out well for me!
Mel in Georgia 3 hours ago
My husband got married to his GF in California before shipping off to the Philippines so she could have benefits while she finished her degree. She visited once for the summer and hated it. Then he got assigned to North Carolina and asked her to join him. She didn't want to live in the South. So that was that. Lasted 18 months, maybe? Somewhat ironically, she ended up living in Tennessee (also in the South) for most of her life! Sometimes life gives you an oops marriage. Turned out well for me!
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