A bride’s long-awaited wedding day descended into chaos when her sister-in-law threw black paint over her just moments before she was due to walk down the aisle.
Gemma Monk, 35, had waited almost 20 years to marry childhood sweetheart Ken when Antonia Eastwood, 49, attacked her outside Oakwood House register office in Maidstone, Kent, in May 2024.
The black paint ruined Gemma’s £1,800 dress and also hit two of her eldest bridesmaids, but the mother-of-two managed to clean up, change into a borrowed dress and marry Ken two hours later.
Antonia Eastwood speaks out
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Antonia, known as Toni, said: “I feel ashamed of myself,” adding: “It’s not me. I’ve never been in trouble with the police before. Ever.
“I had a full-blown panic attack on the day I was sentenced. I was petrified I’d go to prison. It has all taken its toll.”
Despite that, Toni said she did not know why she did it, calling it a “spur of the moment thing”.
She claimed the paint was in the car because her daughter Hollie had recently given birth and she had been using it for her new granddaughter’s handprints and footprints.
“My daughter Hollie had just given birth to our first grandchild and I’d been using some black paint to do our new granddaughter’s handprints and footprints,” she said.
“It was child-friendly, watered-down black paint in a tub of around 200ml and it happened to be in the side pocket of the car.
“I saw her [Gemma] get out of her car – she was a few yards away. Then I just shouted to her and threw the paint. It hit the back of her dress.”
A bitter family feud
Toni and her husband Ashley, one of Gemma’s four brothers, had not been invited to the wedding but turned up anyway.
Toni said she wanted to give Gemma “a piece of my mind” and claimed Gemma had tried to sabotage her own wedding the previous year by trying to trip her as she walked down the aisle.
Gemma dismissed the claim as “delusional” and said: “I’m about 5ft tall. My legs aren’t long enough to trip her even if I wanted to,”
“I told them they were ridiculous for accusing me. I’ve since looked back at their wedding video and it shows Toni walking past me without any incident at all.”
Gemma admitted there was “bad blood” between them, saying: “I didn’t warm to her all that much,” and adding, “The first time I met Toni she was telling me how she left her husband and children to be with Ashley, who in turn had left his wife and children too. It was like she was splitting up two families.”
Court ruling and fallout
At Maidstone Crown Court, Toni received a ten-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, after pleading guilty to two offences of criminal damage.
She was also ordered to carry out 160 hours of unpaid work, handed a ten-year restraining order and told to pay £5,000 in compensation, with £4,000 going to Gemma and £1,000 to Oakwood House.
Judge Oliver Saxby KC rejected the idea that the attack was impulsive and said Toni had set out to “wreck” Gemma’s day, calling it “horrid and nasty and mean”.
Gemma said: “We’d waited so long for that day. Nothing was going to stop me,”
“I didn’t think twice. I would have walked down the aisle in my knickers and with black paint over my face if I had to.”
Ash said Toni now regrets the attack, adding: “She regrets what she did and wishes she could turn back time,”
He also said: “It was a family feud and that’s how it should have stayed.”
A former bride has recalled the shocking moment when she was drenched in black paint on her wedding day.
Gemma Monk was preparing to walk down the aisle on her big day back in May 2024, at Oakwood House Register Office in Maidstone, UK.
The happy couple had invited loved ones to see Gemma and her husband-to-be Ken Monk, officially tie the knot, but they were left with their jaws on the floor.
Antonia Eastwood, who is married to Gemma's older brother, Ashley, covered the bride and her wedding dress in black paint before fleeing the venue in a move which Gemma is still perplexed by.
The bride, 35, managed to wipe her tears away, scrub her face and body in a cubicle, borrowed a dress and walked down the aisle to marry her partner of over 20 years.
Speaking to KentOnline, the mom-of-two said: "We had waited for that day for so long. Nothing was going to stop me. She was determined that the wedding was not going to happen.
"I did not think twice, I would have walked down the aisle in my knickers and with black paint over my face if I had to."
Gemma's sister-in-law was charged and sentenced
It was reported that Antonia, 49, was sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court for two offences of criminal damage.
The court was told that the bill for repairs and "loss of revenue" at the wedding venue, with the amount believed to have exceeded £5,000 ($6,780).
Both Antonia and her husband were not invited to the Monks' nuptials, a year after the wedding, following a feud which raged on following the drama of their special day.
Gemma alleged that she was wrongly accused of "trying to trip up" her sister-in-law during her own wedding to her brother, back in September 2023.
Ever since that wedding in Dover, the relationship between Antonia and Gemma has nosedived, also putting a strain on the once close friendship between Ken and Ashley.
The Monks had their wedding ceremony just two hours after the paint attack, with the Victorian mansion venue later forced to close for repairs.
Gemma's statement in court
Speaking in court, Gemma, a mental health care worker, admitted that she has been suffering from depression since the incident.
Explaining she has been unable to work since the attack, she said in court: "To have paint thrown over me by my brother's wife changed my outlook on life and made me question whether I had done something really bad, whether I had done something wrong.
"This has had a dramatic impact on my life. Even while I was providing this statement at the police station, I got extremely emotional and started crying while talking about the incident.
"Since the incident, if it wasn't for my children or my family, I don't think I would even get out of bed to care for myself.
"I have lost all my dignity and good habits in life. I have lost who I used to be.
"This has turned the most special day of my life into the worst memory I will never forget, and neither will my family."
Health scare and a cancelled honeymoon
The paint attack took place around the time Gemma had a cancer scare, where she lost a significant amount of weight.
She claimed her sister-in-law knew about the medical issue, but still decided to "ruin the most important day of my life and put me at risk."
Gemma also said that she and Ken cancelled their dream honeymoon to the Maldives as she wasn't feeling "up to it" anymore.
"I had a gut feeling, a bad feeling that something was wrong when I got out of the car with my dad," she recalled.
"But he said it must be nerves."
When she stepped into the hallway with her father, bridesmaids and flower girls, Gemma heard her name being called, and she saw someone throw black paint at her.
Speaking ot the court on Tuesday (April 15), prosecutor Pietro Matarazzo said: "Her wedding dress turned black. It was splattered with paint, as were her eyes, face, and skin."
Gemma said she realised who it was and grabbed her by the hair, but Antonia got away.
Antonia Eastwood's sentencing
Antonia would plead guilty to the offences, with the court hearing that professional cleaners were unable to remove the black stains.
The wedding for 50 included a reception at The Fields at Aylesford, costing a total of £8,000 ($10,845), in addition to Gemma's dream dress which cost £1,800 ($2,440).
The defence claimed in court that Antonia had written her letter and highlighted "her wish to apologise" to her sister-in-law.
Judge Oliver Saxby KC said that while "emotions were high" and those involved would "never forget" the events, they should look to move on.
He would impose a 10-month jail term, suspended for 12 months, with 160 hours of unpaid work on Antonia.
"This was meant to be a special day for Gemma Monk and her family. Courtesy of your conduct, it turned into a nightmare," he stated, reiterating how she had scarred the Monk family, labeling her as "nasty and mean".
Antonia was also handed a 10-year restraining order and told to pay £5,000 ($6,780) compensation, which will be a total of £4,000 ($5,420) to her sister-in-law and £1,000 ($1,355) to Oakwood House, at a rate of £100 ($135) per month.
A bride was left standing in a ruined wedding dress after she was apparently doused in red paint by men that her mother-in-law had allegedly hired.
Photos have gone viral of the unfortunate bride after her stunning white dress was spattered with red paint, in what is said to be a cruel act orchestrated by her groom's mom after she disapproved of who he was marrying.
The bride, who is called Alexandra, had not been born into wealth herself but was marrying a man who was from a wealthy family in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, Mexico.
However, his family had always hoped he would find himself a rich woman, and so were not happy with the union after believing Alexandra was only in it for his money - and allegedly did everything they could to ruin the couple's wedding day.
The bride's mother-in-law attempted to ruin her dress. Credit: Peter Cade/Getty Images
According to reports in the New York Post, the groom's family had objected to him marrying Alexandra from the moment the pair got together, doing anything they could to end the relationship.
The in-laws launched an alleged harassment campaign against the bribe, reportedly threatening her and even trying to bribe her with a blank cheque just to get her to leave their son.
Sadly for them, Alexandra wanted to prove she was not a "gold digger" and was in the relationship for love, so there was nothing that could put her off marrying her man, including his mom Maupe faking a heart attack when the pair announced their engagement.
According to a post on X, Maupe had blamed the couple for her medical emergency and demanded that her son "cover all of her medical costs".
The pair were due to wed on February 18, and the groom's family refused to attend - but still wanted to stir the pot and ruin the day even without being there.
Just as Alexandra was getting ready to walk down the aisle on the arm of her father, she felt liquid land on her white wedding dress.
As onlookers screamed in horror, the bride spun round to see that her gorgeous gown had been ruined with large splashes of red paint that had been thrown on her and was trickling to the ground.
In a post shared to Reddit, a user wrote: "I have heard is that she is a lovely person and wouldn’t hurt anyone,” the post read. At first, guests thought the red paint might be blood."
The poster added that the family allegedly "hired someone to throw red paint on the bride’s dress right before walking down the aisle."
Two men had reportedly been armed with cans of red paint while a third had been tasked with recording the assault on his phone.
The post continued: "[The] bride said she initially felt as if it was water, but then saw everyone’s shocked faces and her friends were trying to reassure her that she still looked beautiful.
"She says the worst part of it was looking at her mother’s face because initially, she thought she had been physically hurt."
The incident left the bride shaken but still determined, and knowing that she would not be able to walk down the aisle in the soiled dress, she took herself home to quickly change into something else - a gold, sparkly, floor-length gown.
Much to Maupe's horror - we assume - the wedding still went ahead despite her best efforts and the happy couple managed to say 'I do', albeit in a slightly different but equally as beautiful dress.
Of course, the nightmare in-laws were still not content with the havoc they'd caused and allegedly tried to ruin the reception after they "sent an anonymous tip to the police saying that they could find drugs there", explaining the groom "might be in possession of them."
The police did show up and search the guests, threatening to put the groom in handcuffs, but nobody was arrested and they were soon on their way.
And if you think the harassment ended there, you're wrong.
The in-laws even tried to sabotage the happy couple's honeymoon by hiding the groom's passport and visa and allegedly also tried to "bribe the travel agency to ruin the trip."
"Fortunately [that] didn’t work and bride and groom went on their honeymoon successfully," the post concluded.
After the reports went viral, Maupe seemed to get her comeuppance from the local community as people allegedly egged the family's house, with the post adding: "She is hated by the whole town."
Redditors were stunned to read the ever-escalating series of events, commenting: "This poor couple needs to move away!", and "The poor bride and groom, I hope they take all this serious and move or get protection."
One also pointed out: "If the in-laws do this right now, wait until she gets pregnant!"
A brave mom has spoken out about surviving a violent relationship with a controlling boyfriend who made her tattoo his name on her body nine times.
Nicola Frost, 32, endured an onslaught of domestic abuse throughout her six-year relationship with 31-year-old Aaron James Wharton.
After telling Nicola that he was going to "control every aspect of her life", the mom was forced to endure both physical and mental abuse. During one three-hour attack, the mom was left battered and bruised after being punched, kicked, and strangled, as Wharton held a knife to her face.
WATCH: Nicola recall recalls her abusive relationship:
As well as requiring Wharton's permission to leave the house and to send him pictures of her outfits, Nicola was also made to get nine tattoos of his name on her body, with one reading: "Property of AJ Wharton".
She revealed that the tattoos - some of which were just his initials - were to ensure "nobody else would touch her" because she was "his property".
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After reporting Wharton to the police, he has since been found guilty of causing actual bodily harm in relation to an attack on Nicola back in February of 2019.
Last Friday (August 21) Wharton appeared at Northampton Crown Court, where he was sentenced to 21 months in prison. He was also handed a 10-year restraining order, banning him from contacting Nicola.
Now, Nicola has bravely spoken out about the horrendous abuse she suffered through.
She says that early on in their relationship, Wharton had originally made her feel "like a princess", before he started to change his behavior.
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Nicola soon found herself trapped in a spiral of escalating mental and physical torture, where she was banned from social media and alienated from her friends and family.
The mom-of-five (two of which are with Wharton), from Northampton, England, said: "The first year was perfect. He treated me like a princess. But the next five years were a living hell.
“He just changed. I don’t know what it was. I think he waited for me to get comfortable and knew I wasn’t going anywhere.
"There was emotional abuse - all types of abuse. He controlled every aspect of my life.
"Even if I just went to the shop I had to ask for permission and I had to take a picture of myself and what I was wearing. If I’d done my hair and makeup he would call me a slag.
"All the years I was with him he cut me off from my family and friends.
"If I called them I’d have to delete the call log on my phone or he’d knock the phone out of my hands and smash it.
"He was living round the corner and could see my house from his. He would try to stop me having friends round.
“He could control everything - where I went and who I would speak to. He would take my bank card off me. He was a 100% narcissist.
"My problem was I thought I had no one, because he made me believe I only had him.
"I treated him like a king - I would run his bath, cook him dinner, and iron his shirts. I’d do whatever he wanted.
"But he would hit me multiple times and stepped on my face quite regularly, punch me and slap me, and throw me against the walls.
"He gave me a black eye and split lip a few times, but I was too scared to tell anyone and he knew I didn’t have anyone else."
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Speaking of the nine tattoos she was forced to get, Nicola says that she knows it is "crazy", but adds: "If I didn't do it there would be repercussions. Sometimes I’d laugh when he said what tattoo he wanted me to get and I’d get a slap from him.
"I'm in the process of getting them covered up as I don't need the constant reminder of him. I've had four done so far but it costs a lot."
Nicola has since completed domestic abuse courses, which have helped her notice the "little traps" Wharton would use to get her to stay with him. One of these was proposing to her and promising Nicola that they would one day get married.
"This was one of his ways of keeping control on me," she said. "He is a predator and very clever, he knows what he is doing. But I didn't fall for it and we stayed separated.
"He didn’t let me on social media during our relationship and I set up a Facebook page after we’d split up. He used one of his friends’ accounts to find me.
"He was so angry and said: ‘You’re only doing that to get f*****d’. He said no one was going to touch me because I’ve got five kids and I’m covered in his name."
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After breaking up with Wharton in 2018, the doting mom revealed that she still tried to be civil with him for the sake of their children. This was until his violent attack in February last year.
Recalling the appalling ordeal, Nicola said Wharton flew into a drunken rage following a night out and only stopped the brutal assault when he fell asleep.
She said: "He knocked at my door at 3:00AM, he looked upset so I let him in. I regret doing so to this day.
"He punched me in the face within minutes. He put a knife to my face and cut my cheek. It was like he was possessed.
"He was angry I was getting on with my life and he couldn’t let go. He was saying I was his property.
"He started hitting me with multiple punches, knocked me to the floor and started kicking me. It didn’t matter if I was up or down, he would hit me
"I tried to protect myself by bringing my hands and arms over my face. He was drunk and if he hadn’t fallen asleep I don’t think I’d be here today.
"I was trying to keep quiet so not to wake the two girls up - one was 16 months at the time and the other was about three.
"But one punch was too painful for that and I screamed. He had punched my head against a wall then my head banged back against his fist in a triple blow.
"The next thing I heard was one of my children screaming. I somehow got up and ran upstairs to calm them down.
"I said I had been silly and fallen down the stairs. I didn’t want them to realize what had gone on because they are babies, but I think they know now.
"The next day he acted as if nothing had happened and went into the kitchen to make the kids breakfast.
"He later said to me: 'I can’t believe I did that to you, I’m sorry. But you deserved it.' Then he slapped me again.
"There were bruises all over my face, arms, and legs. I had blurred vision for three weeks and I think my eye socket is damaged. I still have migraines and headaches."
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The mom then revealed how Wharton never thought Nicola would testify against him - but she did; bravely standing in court and giving evidence against her thug ex.
Nevertheless, despite Wharton being found guilty, Nicola has been left disappointed by the "disgusting" 21-month prison sentence. "No amount of time can repay what he has done to me and my kids," she said.
She added: "Knowing he is going to get out in a year means it is not long enough. People like him don’t change.
"There’s no one he can’t charm and he’ll make them believe he’s changed in prison, but he’ll always be a narcissist."
Courageous Nicola said she wanted to share her experience of domestic abuse in an effort to help other victims realize that there is a way out.
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She said: "There are so many people in abusive relationships who can’t speak out. Now I can, I am trying to help someone else by doing so.
"People need to know the signs and see it as abuse and to not doubt themselves, follow through and get out.
"I would love to campaign on this and raise awareness for women and men all over the world in abusive relationships.
"I’d like to see increased funding for domestic abuse victims. There are charities like Women’s Aid but they don’t have enough.
"It'd be great if I can help one person, but I'd like to help multiple people.
"The effect on me has been long-standing. Sometimes I don't even trust my own family and I shudder when someone raises a hand.
"I am now un-training myself from what he trained me to be, mainly not having to ask permission to do anything.
"But now I can understand myself better and get on with my life because he’s in prison."
Thank you for speaking out, Nicola - you are truly an inspiration!
Of all the cheating stories out there, this one is pretty epic. Not so much for what the good-for-nothing cheating scoundrel did, but for the amazing reaction the bride-to-be had. As much as it sucks to find out you've been cheated on, at least you've woken up to the kind of person your partner really is, and that means you can go forward as your own awesome self and be rid of that relationship. And that's exactly what happened here.
A bridesmaid took to Twitter to share a thread detailing what happened when her friend (who was the bride) found out that her fiancé was cheating with her bridesmaidthe day before the wedding. Yikes, how's that for timing? She documents what happened when her friend found out, as well as what happened in the next 24 hours, and boyis it a ride.
She starts off by saying how her friend "caught her fiancé in bed with one of her bridesmaids".
She checked back in later, to update followers that they were having a raucous time throwing paintballs at the dress (!!!) and that they got rid of all the vile fiancé's stuff.
Everyone back at the paintball party was completely shocked at the revelations. It seemed the groom really wanted that day to be his wedding day and the bridesmaid-turned-bride was malicious enough to livestream it, leaving the friend hysterical.
It all sounds extremely melodramatic. But as the tweeting bridesmaid pointed out, at least her friend didn't have to go through it all alone.
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In the end, he got his passport back (withholding something as important as that is a pretty horrible thing for anyone to do), but they did donate the mattress she shared with her douche of a fiancé to a local shelter. It's a pretty insane story, but hey – as she said, at least she dodged what turned out to be way more than just a bullet.
A wedding can be the most stressful event in someone’s life as you begin to dread all the things that could possibly go wrong.
What if the rings go missing? What if my drunk uncle destroys the cake? But out of every possible oversight, I bet that blood-sucking leeches are probably the last thing on your mind.
However, that’s what happened to an Australian bride on the biggest day of her life.
TikTok user Madalyn Wise (@madalyn.wise) made the horrific discovery shortly after her first dance as a newlywed with her husband, Jayden.
The blushing bride has since shared a video of the incident on TikTok that has collected over 37 million views. The newlywed captioned the video: “There’s always something that doesn’t go quite right at your wedding, right?”
Check out Madalyn's first video below:
In her first post, she shares sweet footage of her first dance with her new husband.
However, the overlay text reads: "What we discovered under my dress a few minutes after our first dance." The video then cuts to show Madalyn's wedding dress stained with blood.
After the first video amassed more than 12,000 comments, many people in the comments section admitted that they thought Madalyn had just come on her period at the most inopportune time. Many TikTokers were also desperate to find out just how the bride found herself covered in leeches.
So, in a second video, Madalyn explained everything.
"So, I live in Australia and we got married on the Gold Coast," she said. "In the weeks leading up to our wedding, we had a lot of rain."
The bride continued: "We had our ceremony. And then we went off to have our wedding portraits taken at the venue.
"So, during this photo session, we did have to go into some really long sludgy grass to get some nice photos. [...] This is where I think the leeches came into the picture. And yes. I said 'leeches'. There were three!"
"There was one underneath my foot, one in like, the pit of my knee, and there was another one just crawling up my leg," she adds. "It would have been there for, like, three hours.
"So, it was there from the photoshoot to our first dance. So it was literally on me throughout my whole reception."
After having her first dance with her husband, Madalyn was grabbed by her mother-in-law and dragged to a private area of the venue.
"I think had been dancing with my friends for maybe, like, one or two songs. And then all of a sudden my mother-in-law grabs me."
After noticing that she was bleeding all over her white dress, the bride assumed that she had become "so stressed" from the big day that she'd triggered an early period.
After her wedding coordinator and photographer helped to sponge the stains out of her dress, Madalyn was joined by her husband.
"I'll never forget the look on his face when he saw me," she says.
“Every day I open TikTok and just get another reason to not visit Australia,” joked one social media user in the comments section. To which, Madalyn replied: “Please do not take Australia off your bucket list just because of this. This is was a complete one-off, random unlucky thing that happened. It does not happen every day.”
Others also made several references to the Netflix series Stranger Things.
This led the bride to reply jokingly: “I’ve seen this Stranger Things comment a few times now, and what you guys don’t actually know, is this is actually a promo for the new season.”
In the aftermath of the embarrassing event, the bride showed she had thick bandages wrapped around her leg with tissues to help remove the leech.
Leeches are often mistaken to be mostly water-based as they thrive in those conditions but they can actually survive on land and in between grass after heavy rainfalls. They are not dangerous creatures so there was never any real risk to the blushing bride.
Their bite is painless because they release a chemical that numbs the sensation so they are not disturbed by the host when feasting.
But if you want to avoid becoming a leech’s happy meal, waterproof gaiters (or garters, on this occasion) are recommended.
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