We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, weddings are the biggest drama catalysts of any social gathering. And another marital feud victim has taken to Reddit’s Am I The Arsehole (AITA) thread to have their case seen by the online jury.
On today’s agenda, is a man whose brother chucked him out of his wedding after he made a joke about him cheating on his first wife during a speech at his second wedding. And while his brother and new sister-in-law were furious, the internet seems to think he did nothing wrong.
‘When I was in elementary school, I was the type of kid who got "disrupts class often" on their report card so I never focused much on school,’ the man told the thread for context. ‘My district had this system where they would pair high schoolers with younger kids to help them with school etc. and my mom made me do that after I kept getting in trouble.’
The original poster (OP) was then assigned a tutor called Abby who later started dating, and eventually married and had a child with, his brother John. The three remained very close until years later when John cheated on Abby after having an affair with his new girlfriend. Messy.
‘I asked Abby how she was doing, and she wasn’t doing well,’ the OP wrote. ‘But she told me she didn’t want her to be the reason I have a bad relationship with my brother.’
Unfortunately for Abby, she hasn’t known peace since the split because John’s new girlfriend (later fiancée) has taken to nonstop harassing her with nasty text messages: ‘His girlfriend was saying some pretty disturbing things about how she’s so much better than Abby, taunting Abby for having to share custody of her kid now [and] just making fun of her and bullying her,’ the OP explained.
Leaping to Abby’s defence, the OP informed his brother of the messages who spoke to his fiancée about it, read the message chain, and somehow concluded there was ‘nothing wrong’ with what his new partner had said. ‘Abby apologised for involving me in the whole thing in the first place and encouraged me to still go to their wedding,’ the OP continued.
On the big day, the OP’s brother had asked him to make a speech: ‘The speech went well until I made a joke,’ he said. ‘The gist of the joke was me turning to his new wife and telling her that if she’s learned anything from this, she should know that my brother “will never let his wife stop him from finding the love of his life.”’
All hell then broke loose as the man was kicked out of his brother’s wedding for the gag and has been receiving angry calls and texts ever since. But, as many Reddit users pointed out, sometimes it’s okay to be the arsehole in the name of sticking up for your friend. And ‘my brother will never let his wife stop him from finding the love of his life’ is an incredible line.
Really, we feel sorry for the groom’s child who will have to grow up with bad blood between their step mum and mother unless their father chooses to address the cruel messages that have been sent from one to the other.
Ultimately, the OP’s brother is the villain of this piece, but his wedding guests might not have been the right audience for the riskiest speech of the OP's life. As one Reddit user put it: ‘Solid burn. Hot enough to scorch the bridge between you and your brother.’ And now the OP will have to live with the repercussions.
AITA For Not Paying My Brother-In-Law For Babysitting? Yes, Probably