A divorced mum revealed footage of how her body ‘rejected’ her ex on her wedding day – with a coughing fit and panic attack during her vows.
Kelly O’Neill married her childhood sweetheart at 19 years old in 2018 but after just one year they’d fallen out of love and split up. While watching her wedding video earlier this month [Feb] the 26-year-old was surprised to spot what she believes are signs telling her to jilt him at the altar.
Footage shows glammed-up Kelly looking visibly distressed and repeatedly coughing just seconds before saying ‘I do’. She’s since explained she was having a panic attack during the ceremony and thought it was just wedding day nerves. The travel agent even says her up-do hair style had ‘fallen out’ and the shoulder section of her dress broke just minutes before she walked down the aisle.
Kelly believes these were all signs ‘telling her to run’ and so she’s shared the video on TikTok to urge lovers to ‘listen to their bodies’. The clip, which has more than six million views, is captioned ‘my body literally rejecting him on my wedding day. I should have ran’.
Many users supported Kelly in the comments and shared ‘signs’ their marriage was doomed, while others questioned why she’d gone ahead with the ceremony in the first place.
Kelly, from Blackpool, Lancashire, said: “I just thought I was feeling nervous but actually I think it was my body telling me to run. I look back at the video now and just see a young, broken girl who didn’t know what she was doing. As soon as the doors opened and I walked down the aisle I [felt like I] was not in my body. I was so disassociated from it all.
“When I got to the front and started coughing and panicking it was like a rush of myself came back, telling me to ‘run’. I didn’t go into the wedding thinking ‘I don’t want to do this’ but my nervous system knew what was happening when I couldn’t see because I was blinded and young.
“It started off with just a cough then my body just kind of froze. I was having a panic attack at that moment. I had everyone around me telling me it was just nerves and the officiator was reassuring me, saying ‘are you okay? It’s just nerves’. Looking back now, having seen my friends get married, they would never turn around and say that that’s how they felt.
“My hair had been done up but I remember when we got outside it had all fallen out and was ruined. The shoulder part of my dress came undone and had to be held together by a pin. There’s silly little things now that I look back on and think ‘these were all little signs’.”
Kelly admitted her ‘blindfold’ of love was lifted when she split up with her ex just one year later [2019]. She’s now with boyfriend Julian Beresford-Wylie, 35, and they have a four-month-old child together. While looking through baby photos with her mum earlier this month she came across her old wedding video and was struck by how ‘broken’ she looked.
Kelly said: “When I stepped away from it all my blindfold was lifted. I watched [the video] and I just felt sad for that girl. I didn’t recognise her as me. It only came after. I decided to post it to see if anyone else could relate to it but a lot of my comments on TikTok are just saying ‘you should’ve walked away’ and it’s never that black and white.
“That was my first time in life experiencing that and I’ve never felt those feelings before so I was trying to make sense of them and think they’re normal’. I was very young. A lot of people grow up dreaming of a wedding and I felt like I had to. I went into the wedding with no expectations [of how to feel] and that’s why I found it so hard to draw a line between what I was actually feeling and what I thought I was feeling.
“I don’t regret getting married but I know next time I’ll never rush into something. I’d encourage people to listen to their body if something doesn’t feel right, especially if you’re young. Surround yourself with good people who love you and don’t be afraid, because the grass isn’t always greener but it definitely can be.
“You’re going to want to ignore everyone’s advice and think you know everything but your body knows.”
The mum revealed she met her current boyfriend in 2021 while they worked at a supermarket together. She insists she’s not rushing to get married and is instead focusing on saving for a house.
Kelly’s TikTok has more than 3,200 comments with users split on the situation. One commented: “You actually look so scared.”
Another user said: “This happened to me too. I was so shocked.” A third user agreed and wrote: “Before walking down the aisle I was throwing up and having a panic attack. My family thought it was jitters.”
A fourth user added: “The people judging have never been in a situation like this.” However, one said: “How did you get so far? This is so confusing.” Another said: “Why are people marrying someone if this is how they feel?”