People Break Down The Fastest Ways They've Seen A Marriage End

Not all marriages are meant to work out, and there are some universal reasons why a marriage might end, like cheating or falling out of love.

But there are some things that will end a marriage almost as quickly as someone can snap their fingers.

Curious, Redditor PuzzleheadedSwim6291 asked:

"What's the fastest way you've seen a marriage end?"

A Long Con

"My aunt was once married for a few hours. During the reception, her husband took all of the cards and the gifts, disappeared, and wasn't seen again for years. Supposedly, he said he was going to put everything in the car, but loaded up the car and drove off to another state that evening, and that was it."

"Officially, I want to say she had it annulled within a week, but unofficially, you could say that the marriage was over after six to seven hours."

- galagapilot

Quick Cheating Turnaround Time

"I knew someone whose wife cheated on him on the honeymoon, with someone she’d been chatting with online, and organised a meetup at the destination. I think it was two weeks."

- Annual_Reindeer2621

"A good friend of mine got married at a lovely cabin in rural Northern California, owned by a friend of the bride. The wedding was great!"

"Wife stayed behind to help clean up the next day, and immediately slept with the owner. Divorce followed a month later when he found out."

"People suck sometimes, hope your friend is happy! Mine remarried an incredibly kind and smart person, and they have two adorable children who I contemplate stealing (not literally) every time I visit."

- acutehypoburritoism

Second Chance Romance, Maybe

"My own, within three months. We got married, and it was like a complete 180°. Turns out his ex-girlfriend reached out to him around the same time, and he still had feelings for her."

"I found out because she messaged me on Facebook with the screenshots of their texts. He had promised to leave me if she’d get back with him. She agreed, so we divorced. She never got back with him."

- Grouchy-Emu3092

His Way Or The Highway

"I know of one that lasted two weeks (and was actually over before that). High school sweethearts, but the bride tried to back out of the wedding, realizing her fiancé was and always had been controlling and emotionally abusive."

"Her mom and MIL convinced her it was just cold feet."

"She went through with it; on their wedding night, he gave her a 'This is how it’s going to be now that we’re married' speech about what he expected her to do and not do as his wife, and she left that night and didn’t come back."

- wordnerdette

Money Matters

"My own marriage ended after roughly three months. Ten years together prior to that. I shouldn't have ever married her in the first place, but she insisted/swore she would 'do better.'"

"She was horrible with money, to the point that she was making six figures and still constantly overdrafting her checking account. It made life extremely stressful."

- LesBonBon

"My wife makes more money than I do, but has never had money to manage before, and thus doesn't know how. Tried to teach her, but she decided she'd rather just send some to me to pay for bills and some into savings."

"Made a little spreadsheet for her to look at so she can see where her money is and how much debt she's paid off. Takes a bunch of stress off me too since she's basically got the utilities and one-third of the gas and groceries covered."

- kaloonzu

Wedding Cake

"Twelve hours. They argued about the wedding cake and never spoke again."

- Luminousissxo

"Dear Prudence, a number of years ago, had one where the bride asked for an immediate (hours? one day?) annulment because the groom smashed cake in her face after she had explicitly, repeatedly, over the weeks leading up to the wedding, told him that was a deal breaker."

- Away-Flight3161

"I explicitly told my partner not to do that... he did it anyway... My knee-jerk reaction was to kick him in the shins really hard in front of the guests."

"18 years later, and we are still together. Somewhere is the tape of my mother gasping my name in horror, his stepmother chastising him, and his biomother running to comfort him. With our fathers both muttering about how he deserved it."

- Apprehensive-Pie3147

Can't Waste The Catering

"I worked as an assistant wedding planner last year. We had a couple break up right after they signed their marriage certificate. They still partied with their friends/family, but separately on other sides of the venue. It was very awkward."

- OddlyIlluminated

"'I paid for the catering, d**mit, and I'm not going to let it go to waste!'"

- Curaced

"That's kind of amazing."

- backupbeaches

Forget "Married For Life"

"I ran into a coworker and her husband the morning after their wedding at the airport on their way to their honeymoon."

"She was in the restroom, and I told the groom congrats on the wedding, etc., and he said, 'Yeah, this one ain’t lasting too long,' and then just smiled."

"About three months later, they were divorced, but I don’t know all the reasons. They both were trainwrecks."

- iwouldhugwonderwoman

Pressured To Marry

"When I was in college, I knew a girl who was friends with my roommates. She was getting married, but it was clear they were unhappy. On the month of her wedding, she said she didn’t want to get married anymore, but a lot of people had already sent gifts, and others were excited, so she felt bad canceling."

"On the day of her wedding, she went and got married, had the reception, and that night slept on our couch. She lived with us for three months on our couch and totally spiraled until she dropped out of college."

- moviemakerjay

Financial Aid

"Three days. I am an ordained minister, the wedding was on a Saturday, and everything went very well."

"On Monday, the bride had a meeting with her college financial advisor. She informed them she just got married, and when they ran the numbers with the groom's info, she no longer qualified for whatever financial assistance she was going for."

"They called me right away to not turn in the certificate. Even though I had not turned it in yet, they were technically considered married because they said their vows and we all signed it."

"We went to the judge on Tuesday, and he annulled it or whatever needed to be done."

"They are still together, she has her degree, and now it’s a funny story to tell. They just left the relationship as is and never got 'remarried.' They said maybe on their 10 year anniversary, they’ll renew their vows and do it for real again."

- TheParallax2

Quite The Symbol...

"A former coworker found out his wife cheated on him the night before the wedding. I don't remember exactly when he found out, but he came back to work from his honeymoon vacation already having filed for divorce."

"He was so p**sed because his Father-in-Law had offered them either a big wedding or 50k for a down payment on a house. His wife insisted that it had to be a wedding because it was a symbol of their love."

"He was a cool dude, a young guy, and he didn't let it make him an a**hole. Last I heard, he'd married someone, bought a house, and had kids."

- Zestyflour

Not A Fixer-Upper

"My mom and my first stepdad were only married for a handful of weeks. I was pretty young at the time, so I'm not fully aware of the details, but I suspect the marriage had been an attempt to 'fix' whatever problems they had in their relationship prior to that point, which is basically never going to actually work."

"They eloped to Vegas, and a couple of weeks later, my mom is explaining what an annulment is to me."

- AlltheTyrant

Too Much Gambling

"Four weeks. The bride went to the bank to deposit their wedding gift monies in their savings account, asked for a statement, and saw the account was basically empty (they'd been saving for a house for the seven years they'd been together). Turns out the groom had a secret gambling addiction and thought he could win all the money back before she noticed. I guess he didn't bet on her looking at the account, just adding to it."

- MaxGoldfinich25

In Sickness And In Health

"Two hours. This happened in India."

"My friend got married. Everyone sat down to eat, and he had an epileptic fit. He hasn't had one in over 10 years, but it happened at the most unfortunate moment."

"What's worse is the bride didn't know anything about his past with epilepsy. She freaked out. So did her parents, and after a few pointed but polite words exchanged, it was over."

"It was all over, and the bridal party left the venue. By that time, the groom recovered from his seizure and was able to look around and understand where he was and what was happening."

"PS: He married someone else a year later, and she's an amazing person, and they made an awesome couple, and they have two amazing kids together."

- antipositron

While marriage is assumed to be forever, it's alarming how many different ways a marriage can dissolve astoundingly quickly.

From gambling to cheating to financial plans, it seems like there's no shortage of ways a marriage could not work, making the ones that do all the more special.