Something borrowed: grooms and guests for hire in Vietnam
Kha
Hanoi (AFP) – Kha’s wedding day looked perfect from the outside but she was hiding a dark secret: the 27-year-old was three months pregnant and her husband was fake  hired for a staged wedding to avoid the social stigma of becoming a single mother.
“My parents would have been the first to be filled with shame if I was pregnant and without a husband ”  Kha   barely showing  told AFP a month after the $1 500 fake marriage  which was quietly paid for by  her  baby’s father who is married to another woman.
The wedding-guests-for-hire business is growing in Vietnam — where some 70 percent of people over 15 are married — and not just among pregnant women like  Kha  looking for stand-in husbands.
 Kha  and  her  fake husband were never legally married — a formality often overshadowed by lavish wedding parties in Vietnam — but  she  is forever grateful to  him  for playing the part in front of  her  friends and relatives.
“I felt like I was about to drown but I grabbed a life jacket ” said  a smiling Kha  whose name has been changed to protect her identity .
 Her  parents were in on the secret but  Kha  plans to tell the rest of  her  family that  her  ‘husband’ left  her  — preferring to be a divorced single mother than having a baby out of wedlock.
 Kha  who is due around April   says  her  fake marriage finally freed  her  from  her  lie.
 She  said: “Hiding my pregnancy was so exhausting  but now I feel very confident about the present and the future.”
Hanoi (AFP) – Kha’s wedding day looked perfect from the outside but she was hiding a dark secret: the 27-year-old was three months pregnant and her husband was fake  hired for a staged wedding to avoid the social stigma of becoming a single mother.
“My parents would have been the first to be filled with shame if I was pregnant and without a husband ”  [TGT]told AFP a month after the $1 500 fake marriage  which was quietly paid for by  her  baby’s father who is married to another woman.
The wedding-guests-for-hire business is growing in Vietnam — where some 70 percent of people over 15 are married — and not just among pregnant women like  [TGT]looking for stand-in husbands.
 [TGT]and  [TGT]  fake husband were never legally married — a formality often overshadowed by lavish wedding parties in Vietnam — but  she  is forever grateful to  him  for playing the part in front of  [TGT]  friends and relatives.
“I felt like I was about to drown but I grabbed a life jacket ” said  a smiling [TGT]whose name has been changed to protect her identity .
 Her  parents were in on the secret but  [TGT]plans to tell the rest of  her  family that  her  ‘husband’ left  her  — preferring to be a divorced single mother than having a baby out of wedlock.
 [TGT]who is due around April   says  her  fake marriage finally freed  her  from  her  lie.
 She  said: “Hiding my pregnancy was so exhausting  but now I feel very confident about the present and the future.”