True life stories

Teenage bride to burn 30 kilo wedding dress after divorce

Thursday, May 31, 2012
Image: Twitter
Image: Twitter
A teenage bride who married at 16 in an over-the-top wedding will now divorce her husband of just two years and plans to burn her 30kg wedding dress.

Josie McFayden, who starred in the first episode of the UK TV show My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, married Swanley Smith in 2010.

During their fairytale wedding ceremony, which was watched by 6.5 million viewers, she wore a one-of-a-kind white net and diamante dress.

Gypsy wedding dresses are extravagant one-off designs, and the bigger, the better. Gypsy brides often compete with each other to have the biggest and best dress made from layers of tulle and diamantes, which can lead to them being almost unwearably heavy.

Now Josie, who has an eight-month-old daughter with Swanley has moved out of the pair's caravan after discovering her husband gave half of their life savings to his family and spent the rest on himself.

The pair was given £105,000 ($239,150) as compensation by Surrey County Council after being forced to leave the caravan site they lived in after it became contaminated.

"I am in shock. I’m 18, with a baby and getting divorced," she told told UK newspaper The Sun.

"I feel I can never trust another man with anything."

She said cracks in her marriage began to show soon after the pair said 'I do'.

"It was like a fairytale, but it was too good to be true. Swanley just changed overnight," she said.

"I was supposed to be a lady of leisure bringing my little girl up and he was supposed to provide for his family.

"But I spent four-and-a-half hours a day cleaning and he stopped going to work. I just never felt like his wife, I felt like his maid."

Josie, who is part of the gypsy traveller community, says it is not uncommon to get married at a young age, but said she would be advising her own daughter to wait until she is in her 20s to get married.


Related video: See Josie's 30 kilo wedding dress in the video below.

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User comments
You're all pretty ignorant, if you watched the show, Traveler girls are not allowed to have a job after marriage and are expected to marry early and divorce is looked down on. In her community, she is expected to have alot of babies, live in a caravan, clean it all day, and has high restictions on leaving the house and having a good time. Unlike other girls, this probably is quite a big issue for her. I would be closer to burning my wedding dress than selling it.
Hey, just because someone married young doesn't mean they aren't 'mentally mature enough" to handle it. I got married at 18, and 15 years on, I'm still completely in love and devoted to my wife as she is to me. As for her burning the wedding dress- if you were in her situation, I'd be doubtful that YOU'D want to sell your wedding dress. But I suppose no one will ever know what they would do until they're actually in that sitatuion.
yes they both are just that. No matter what age she or he will be I guess if you think that way you always will. Burnig an expensive dress and then complaining she has no money is just plain dumb. That dress could be put on eBay and sell straight away. What a drip she is. She thinks the way a lot of girls do today, that she should be a lady of leisure and the guy do everything, well, sorry, thats not the case. She should just get off her but like millions of others do with children and get a job, sell the dress and stop whinging and whining. She has more than a lot of other girls have and should be grateful for her wonderful child.
to auzzyliz - the dress is 30 kilograms, not worth $30 thousand. The travelling community are very tight lipped about money, and so the true value of the dress would only be known by the dressmaker, and whoever paid for it. Your idea is a good one, but you have to wonder who is going to buy such a thing?
the dress weighed 30kilograms, not 30,000 dollars.
She was horrified that she spend 4.5 hrs a day cleaning - yep, that's what at-home-mums do. She expected to be supported as a "lady of leisure" and was relying on a teenage boy to support her. Of course he is going to be stupid and screw it up. Oh, and the bit where she is going to burn the dress - couldn't she sell it and use the money to support her child?! This is why teenagers shouldn't get married - they are not mentally mature enough to handle the responsibility.
just because they didn't last long doen't mean teens shouldn't be allowed to marry . this guy is an idiot if i'd been with some 1 at that age if she wanted to marry me and would do it non legaly i'd have done it without parantal or judicial consent i'dve have a found a rouge priest to say the ceemony or had us join hands so our vows and kissed without a cleric . this way it would be valid in god's eyes and under his law . In fact the latter is how quaker do thier weddings
Ok so she doesnt want the dress, i understand that but why not sell it and use the money to raise her daughter or give the dress or money to a charity?

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