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She thought she was a Mrs - but was a Miss...

When a Wellington, New Zealand, couple decided to divorce, they received the shock of their lives - their marriage had never been recorded by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Births, Deaths and Marriages Department in the city.

In April 2008 the "husband" applied for a copy of his marriage certificate to enable him to initiate divorce proceedings. Instead of a written record, he received a letter that stated that no record of the marriage existed. He forwarded the letter to his "wife", who was stunned by the revelation, despite having the original copy from the celebrant.

A weeek later she was contacted by Internal Affairs who stated it had never received a copy of particulars of the marriage from the celebrant.

She is now taking legal advice to see if she can get the marriage annulled.

But under New Zealand law at least,non-registeration did not affect the actual validity of the marriage - the document had been signed by the celebrant and witnesses.

In point of law she should be able to prove the validity of the marriage and proceed to divorce proceedings. But for a short period of time she was concerned that she had never been legally "married".

Read here

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