Objectum sexuality: 10 bizarre incidents where people “Married” objects

Marriage has always been a space where tradition meets emotion, and sometimes, it also meets the unexpected. Across history, marriages have been shaped by politics, love, money, and even superstition. In the modern age, that same impulse to connect and belong has taken some unusual forms—especially when people felt a deep emotional bond with non‑living things. Objectum‑sexuality, or the romantic and sexual attraction to objects, remains rare and often misunderstood, yet it has quietly given rise to some astonishing stories worldwide. Here we list some weird incidents where people married objects, as per various reports:

Eija-Riitta Berliner-Mauer took her commitment so seriously that she even changed her surname to mean “Berlin Wall” in German. She was one of the first people to bring “objectum-sexuality” into the public eye, claiming she fell in love with the wall in 1979. To her, the massive concrete structure wasn’t a political barrier; it was an emotional anchor and her life partner. When the wall was finally torn down in 1989, she didn’t join the global celebration. Instead, she described the event as a bereavement, grieving the loss of her “spouse” just as anyone would grieve a person.

Erika Eiffel became one of the most famous faces of objectum‑sexuality when she “married” the Eiffel Tower in 2007, following a reported 10‑year emotional courtship. Before that, she had formed significant relationships with other objects, including a Japanese sword, her archery bow—used in her competitive archery career—and the tower crane she operated at work. She later separated from the Eiffel Tower but still plays a key role in the object‑love community, often defending it against criticism and stereotypes. In 2022, there were reports of her now being attracted to a fence!

Photo: Fact/ Instagram

Brazilian woman Meirivone Rocha Moraes drew viral attention when she “married” a life‑sized homemade rag doll she named Marcelo. After telling her mother she had no one to dance with, her mother created the doll, filling a social and emotional gap in her life. In 2021, they held a theatrical wedding with around 250 guests, complete with vows and celebrations. Moraes later claimed to have had a child, then twins, and eventually a fourth “child” with the doll recently, sharing their unconventional family life on social media.

Photo: Meirivone Rocha Moraes/ Instagram

Objectum‑sexual Carol Santa Fe publicly “married” the Santa Fe train station in California in 2015. The union was not legally binding, but for her, it felt emotionally real. She said she had loved the building for 36 years and felt it was finally time to formalise that bond. She describes the station as a female entity named Daidra, speaking about it with the tenderness one might use for a partner.

When Chang Hsi‑hsun announced his marriage to an 11‑inch Barbie doll, headlines painted it as a quirky stunt, but the story behind it is far more nuanced. Twenty years earlier, his human wife, Tsai, died by suicide after her family opposed their relationship. Chang later came to believe that her spirit continued to live inside a Barbie doll he deeply cherished. In 1999, he married the doll in a Buddhist temple, this time with the blessing of his late wife’s family, who hoped the gesture might help everyone find peace.

In Japan, a man known as Sal9000 publicly married Nene Anegasaki, a character from the Nintendo DS dating simulation game Love Plus. His formal ceremony took place in Guam, where local laws allow symbolic marriages to inanimate and imaginary objects. For Sal9000, the relationship with Nene wasn’t just a game; it was a deep emotional bond he took seriously enough to formalise publicly.

In 2018, Karen Cooper in Fort Myers, Florida “married” a 100‑year‑old ficus tree in the local park as part of a campaign to stop it from being cut down. Her symbolic union was a creative way to draw attention and emotional investment in the tree’s survival. A similar idea was used in the UK when Kate Cunningham, later known as Kate Elder, married an elder tree in Rimrose Valley, Liverpool, in an effort to halt plans for a bypass that would destroy part of the park.

Chinese man Liu Ye decided to “marry” himself rather than stay single, entering into a traditional ceremony with a life‑sized cardboard cutout of himself wearing a bright red bridal dress. The wedding in 2007 drew bemused local villagers and curious guests, turning his personal statement into a public spectacle. Liu said he felt disappointed with reality and chose this act as a form of self‑celebration and self‑acceptance. He wasn’t the first to marry an image of himself, as New Yorker Kevin Nadal did the same in 2005, also framing it as a celebration of the single life.

There’s a famous story about a British woman named Cindy who claimed her heart belonged to a dolphin. This wasn’t just a passing phase; she had been visiting the same dolphin in Israel for 15 years before deciding to make it “official.” In a symbolic wedding ceremony, she shared a kiss with her aquatic partner and offered a herring as a wedding gift. Cindy’s unusual love story highlights how humans can project deep, complex emotions onto intelligent social animals and find “pure” connections with them.

In South Korea’s high-pressure society, a university student named Lee Jin made global headlines for “marrying” his dakimakura—a large Japanese hugging pillow featuring a girl’s image. For the ceremony, the pillow was even dressed in a custom wedding gown. On the surface, it’s easy to dismiss this as a viral stunt, but Lee spoke about it with a lot of vulnerability. For him, the pillow offered a level of emotional predictability and safety that he couldn’t find in people. It sparked a massive conversation about the growing “loneliness epidemic” and why some people opt for non-judgmental, inanimate companions over the messiness of human dating