Fury As Bride Rejects Twin As Maid-of-Honor As She's Divorced: 'Blindsided'

A woman has been slammed after her twin sister revealed online that she'd blocked her from being maid-of-honor at her wedding, purely because she got a divorce two years ago and was now single again.

The woman shared on social media that her sister, Stella, and her soon-to-be husband told her that her status as a "divorced woman" wouldn't be a good look for their wedding.

While her sister and soon-to-be brother-in-law have ostracized her for being a divorcee, divorce is not uncommon in the U.S. Findings from the divorce resource and legal hub Divorce.com discovered that in 2023, the U.S had the sixth highest divorce rate in the world, with 40 percent to 50 percent of married couples choosing to file for a divorce.

"For background, Stella and I are identical twins, and we will both be 30 when her wedding comes around this fall. I had her as my maid-of-honor eight years ago and she promised me that I could be hers when her wedding came around," the woman opened up on Reddit.

"My marriage fell apart just over two years ago, due to a stillbirth and my husband's infidelity. My parents and sister were the only reason I didn't drown from the stress, loneliness, and total abandonment of my spouse. I went to therapy, got diagnosed with bipolar disorder and depression, quit drinking, and I owe a lot of it to my amazing sister. She's the reason why I kept chasing down my ex for child support when he stopped suddenly paying."

The woman went on to describe in the now-viral post how her "amazing" sister had a change of heart once she became engaged to 35-year-old Jon, and how the pair decided to block her from being the maid-of-honor at their wedding as she had once been promised.

"Stella and Jon got engaged last year. The biggest caveat is that they must be married in Jon's family's church, a full mass with communion. The family is on board because this is going to be a very big wedding. Tonight, Stella had invited me to dinner. I assumed that it was to formally ask me to be her maid-of-honor," the woman wrote.

She recalled the moment she learned that the coveted wedding role was being handed to someone else: "Jon was with her, weird because Stella didn't mention him coming at all in our texts about the dinner. We hugged like usual but Jon didn't. In a nutshell, Jon expressed the following, 'my parents found out that you're divorced when they asked why your husband wasn't coming. They are no longer comfortable with you being maid-of-honor because it won't look good to the church if my family hears about the divorce.'"

Shocked and hurt by what he had to say, the woman recounted that she began crying on the spot. In an attempt to comfort her, her sister reassured her that her not being the maid-of-honor would free her of stress. A few days after the awkward conversation, the Redditor decided to formally pull out of her twin's wedding and only attend as a minor guest.

"A few hours ago, I texted Stella that I would not be in her wedding party at all. That was my decision. I wouldn't pull my daughters out, but I would only attend as a guest," the woman continued.

She added that her sister wouldn't take her seriously, and went on to bombard her with demanding calls and messages. The Redditor shared that Stella labeled her decision to step down from the wedding an "overreaction."

Looking back on the heated discussion, the woman shared that she had felt extremely "blindsided" to hear that she could no longer take on the role of maid-of-honor, and hurt to the point where she felt "gut-punched."

Can The Twins Make Up?

It's clear from the Reddit post that the siblings have fallen out over the upcoming wedding, but is reconciliation possible if Stella continues to invalidate her sister's feelings? Dr. Carole Lieberman is an internationally-renowned psychiatrist and author who has also served as a member of UCLA's clinical faculty, in the department of psychiatry. Lieberman told Newsweek how the pair could approach making amends and moving forward.

"When family, friends or lovers have a disagreement or fight, it can have long lasting consequences. They can either talk and get to the bottom of it, bringing about an understanding and closeness or they can drift apart," Lieberman explained.

"The timing of an attempt at reconciliation is important. Too soon and the pair may be still too heated to be able to listen to each other explain their side. Too late and there's the risk of each of them drifting off, forgetting how important the relationship was, and never trying to heal the rift between them."

The U.S. based psychiatrist went on to tell Newsweek that the real healing of this rift will begin when one of the pair apologizes to the other.

"It helps to start out with an apology, even if you don't think you did anything wrong. It could just be an expression of feeling bad that there is this misunderstanding between you. Then you can simply suggest a general time and place to get together to talk, perhaps a place that holds good memories," said Lieberman.

"If you find that you can't work it out yourselves, you can then include someone who cares about you both, or a psychotherapist to be a mediator. Whatever the subject of the rift, it can almost always be healed," she added optimistically.

What Do the Comments Say?

Since it was shared to the social media platform on March 31 by @Twin_Bridesmaid, the post, which can be seen here, has been upvoted over 6,500 times and commented on over 1,700 times. The majority of the Redditors engaging with the post have chosen to side with the woman and have validated the reason why she chose to step down from the wedding.

One user picked up on Stella and Jon's judgmental attitude, writing: "Honestly I wouldn't let the kids be in this wedding either, they don't need to be subjected to the in laws high and mighty attitude," in a comment which received over 11,200 upvotes.

"As painful as it is, please don't allow your innocent kids to be props for Stella's in laws," another user agreed. "Their religion and conservatism do not take precedence over your and your kids health and wellbeing. Hang in there."

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