'My best man declared his love at my wedding - now we're married'
The groom's best man - at his wedding - allegedly 'stole' the bride from the groom.
Desiree White, aged 32, divorced her husband to marry her lifelong friend, who happened to be the best man at their wedding, named Bryant. He confessed his undying love for her while toasting her nuptials to his former best-friend.
“He said, ‘I remember the first moment I saw Desiree, I loved her. I fell in love with her. I knew she had to be mine. I thought she was the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen in my life,’” Desiree, from Illinois, said of Bryant’s best man’s speech during her 2010 ceremony.
“He said, ‘She’s the best person I’ve ever met. I’ve never met anyone like her. Then I found out she already had a boyfriend and I thought I needed to find out a way to get her, but then I met [White’s ex-husband] and we became friends,’” she recalled.
The identity of Desiree’s former spouse is unknown, but she and her ex sat side-by-side, slack-jawed, as Bryant poured out his heart in front of them and their 200 wedding guests.
“[Bryant] then just said, ‘Love you both — congratulations.’ It ended there,” she added, noting that her ears “turned red” with embarrassment after his admission.
After, a wave of awkwardness then overcame the room, she remembered, saying, “Everyone was kind of laughing — and then it got quiet.”
And she was admittedly “confused” by Bryant’s confession, most notably due to the staunchly platonic nature of their friendship.
“Bryant and I met each other in class at high school,” she said.
“I had a boyfriend at the time and, because of that, I really wasn’t going to talk to other people.”
After showing him a picture of her then-boyfriend, Bryant immediately recognised the kid as someone who shared the same lunch period as him. The three formed a tight buddies bond shortly thereafter.
“Bryant and my ex-husband became best friends and, because they were guys, they did a lot together. They did everything together,” Desiree said, insisting she did not have any romantic feelings for her now-husband during their formative years.
“I set Bryant up [on dates with other women] so many times,” she said.
“I’ve been on double dates with him and I always tell people I wouldn’t have ever dated the person he was then.
“He had a lot of growing up to do. I didn’t really look at him in that way.”
Desiree claims to have vividly remembered the look of affection that Bryant wore when he saw her adorned in her dress on the morning of her wedding.
“On the wedding day, I walked into the living room, right when I was done getting ready with my wedding dress on and my hair done. Bryant came into my parents’ house and froze and stared at me,” she recounted.
“I said, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ He said I looked beautiful. I’d never had a moment of him looking at me like that.”
She ended up proceeding on to her wedding and got married. Bryant, in turn, reportedly got drunk and then publicly professed his love for her - but it didn’t stop at his best man’s speech.
Later that evening, Desiree shared a dance with him while her new husband danced with her maid of honour. She recalled that while boogying with Bryant, he said, “Why didn’t you ever give me a chance? I would have always taken care of you.”
“I asked him what he meant and he said, ‘Nothing. I love you, I love [White’s ex-husband],’ ” she recounted. “Then he got quiet.”
Following her big day of festivities, she hoped she’d “misinterpreted” Bryant’s declaration of love and tried sweep it “under the carpet”.
“I’m sure it was because he was really drunk and lonely,” she recalled thinking to herself at the time.
However, less than a year later, when her marriage began to crumble because her then-husband had adopted “a totally different lifestyle,” Desiree’s relationship with Bryant took a sudden romantic turn.
“When [my ex and I] broke up and divorced, I went through a depression and was really secluded myself. I just didn’t want to make an effort for anything,” she said, noting Bryant showered her with emotional support during the separation.
“He’d ask me to eat with him or hang out and watch a show. He was trying to be there for me.”
Then, to her surprise: “Bryant and I just kissed one day when we were hanging out.”
“It was out of nowhere. When he kissed me, I didn’t stop it, then I kissed him back,” she said.
Almost immediately, the friends became lovers. And, within a year, she became pregnant with their first son, Sawyer, who’s now 9, and the couple got married in 2012.
“[Bryant] said, ‘I always wanted to marry you and this isn’t because of the baby, but let’s start this family right’,” she explained.
“We were always friends but when we were together [romantically], it was like nothing was hard to do anymore knowing we had each other.”
Now a mother to her and Bryant’s four boys, Desiree said she’s living the dream.
“We love being parents. Twenty-year-old Desiree wouldn’t think she could be a mum-of-four kids,” she proclaimed.
Desiree first shared her story on TikTok where it quickly went viral, many declaring the story was hard to believe.
“This is for real,” she told one commenter. “It’s my real life.”