The best way to beat divorce odds is to not get married. Or you could always marry yourself; after all, the longest relationship you’re going to have is with yourself. Linda Doktar has had her fair share of heartbreak and so has decided to marry herself. The 34-year-old from Australia held an intimate beach ceremony and invited only three of her closest friends. The romantic setup had all the trimmings of a standard wedding; white wedding gown, colourful bouquet, and vows which she said while holding a mirror to herself.
Linda first got the idea for a self-marriage from her friend EJ who is a relationship coach and has performed them in the past. ‘I thought this was a beautiful concept to symbolise my journey into loving and honouring myself on a deeper level,’ Linda explained. ‘I believe that the most important relationship I will ever have is with myself. ‘I know and understand that the quality of the relationship we have with ourselves determines the quality of experiences we have with others.
Linda said she enjoyed the small ceremony where there was a red satin walkway lined with rose petals and flowers. The whole thing doesn’t mean she’s closed off to having a relationship though, she explained, and is just a commitment to herself. She revealed it comes after she led a life of self-loathing which the ceremony symbolised an end to, putting her on the journey to self-love and spirituality. Who knows, self-marriages might just become a trend.
Now, imagine waking up from three days in intensive care and your wife has passed on the message: ‘You’ve been dumped.’ Well, that’s basically what happened to this Don’t Tell The Bride groom after his wife discovered he’d been having an affair. Adam Ledner was rushed to hospital after passing out and remained unconscious for three days where his doting wife remained by his bedside – until a message popped up on his phone, which read: ‘Hey babe, what are you up to today?’ After scrolling through Adam’s phone, Bianca realised her hubby had been dating another woman on the side for five months.
When Adam woke up, he was dumped. ‘I went from being terrified of losing my husband to furious that the man I loved had been sleeping with another woman behind my back,’ Bianca spilled to The Sun. ‘When he woke up to an empty room and called me, I told him I knew everything. I was never going to take him back.’
What’s even worse, Bianca explained, was that she felt he didn’t look sorry about the situation. Bianca put all of his belongings into his car and gave the nurses his keys. But despite throwing him out, Bianca made sure the nurses regularly updated her about his health. ‘Adam was in hospital for three days before he woke up to find I wasn’t there. The next day he was released from hospital and knocked on my door, asking if he could stay,’ she said. ‘I said no.
He didn’t show any remorse, he just looked sorry for himself that he’d been found out.’ Bianca and Adam met on dating app Tinder in 2014 and ‘instantly fancied’ each other. ‘Annoyingly, I was about to leave Wales to go travelling,’ Bianca continued.
‘But we stayed in touch the whole time and a few months later he surprised me by flying out to join me.’ A year later, they were engaged after Adam popped the question in Thailand. ‘I said yes straight away,’ Bianca added. ‘It just felt perfect. ‘A month later, we found out I was pregnant. We flew home for Christmas and excitedly told our families the news and we soon moved in together.’ With a baby on the way, Bianca applied TV favourite Don’t Tell The Bride to save some pennies, and just a month later her wedding was in production, but the ceremony didn’t quite turn out to be the dream wedding. ‘He bought me a tacky £140 dress,’ she sighed. ‘It was a far cry from the glamorous ceremony I’d hoped for, but with a baby on the way, I let him off.’
Adam has actually tried to defend his behaviour, and told the publication: ‘The competition made me unwell and there’s a lot of pressure, that’s how all this came about. Bianca’s always been jokey with me, but during that time I was taking everything she said literally. ‘So I had Bianca saying things like, “You could do with going to the gym a bit more”, and this other girl was telling me I was God’s gift. ‘I haven’t seen that girl since August. I’d seen her three times and it was all going to be done with after the competition. ‘I nearly died and basically then my world ended. I really do regret it but I needed it at the time. I lost it all and I massively regret it now.’