“I wanted to rip the clothes and wig off. He said: “Sometimes I would look at myself in the mirror and think, ‘Who is this person looking back at me?’ Roy finally found the courage to leave his husband and in-laws after nine months. They took it really badly and told me never to come home again.” He said: “She wanted to sit down with my family and tell them what had happened. His mum-in-law forced him to visit them dressed as Lucky. Roy’s own parents found out his secret and disowned him when snaps of the wedding appeared on Facebook, exposing Roy as the bride pictured. Then Roy’s partner started calling him his wife, buying him lingerie and expensive jewellery. He recalled: “He didn’t see what was going on and we argued about it constantly.” Roy sought comfort in his husband, who he still loved, but says they barely had any time together. He became malnourished on just a bowl of Weetabix and a smoothie a day. Luckily I was able to wear a veil for the majority of the ceremony.” I thought they were going to find out I was a man. “I was thinking, ‘Come on, you’re pulling my leg here’. “They all kept saying, ‘She’s so beautiful’, and, ‘Does she have any sisters for our sons?’ “There were 450 people staring at me and only nine people knew the truth. “This was supposed to be the best day of my life – it was the worst day of my life. I was forced to dress as a bride because they couldn’t accept a gay wedding. “She told everyone in the community I was a widow and an orphan so I had no guests. She just asked for money so I sold my brand new car and gave her £9,000 to pay for it all.”ĭuring the wedding at the family’s house, Roy nearly fainted from fear of being found out. “Me and his mum would go shopping for the wedding and she would tell me I was going to be her best friend.
In reality, he was living with his partner in his in-laws’ house in the capital and, as the big day drew nearer, he became ever more nervous. Roy, who comes from Manchester, told his parents he was moving to London for work. But I just wanted to be with him and I would have done anything.” “I knew it was going to be difficult us being together as LGBTQ isn’t talked about in the Asian community,” he said. I thought, ‘How did that even come into her head?’ She had even brought a basket of women’s clothes and gold bracelets with her.”Īfter agonising over the weird arrangement, Roy agreed.
I would also need to pretend to be a woman for a while to convince the community her son isn’t gay.” “She said if I wanted to marry him I would have to dress as a woman on the wedding day. “But she told me that she comes from a big Indian family and there’s a lot of honour involved.
“She said I was very good-looking and her son had chosen well. I thought this was my very own fairytale love story.”ĭays later Roy received a call from his future mother-in-law. He said: “Two years later he asked me to marry him.