My groom’s secret wife stopped our wedding

Here, Aimee, 31, tells the story in her own words.

Gazing into my man’s eyes, I felt a rush of love as we clinked glasses.

‘Cheers to our future,’ beamed Charlie.I grinned as I glanced down at my gorgeous sparkly new ring.‘I can’t believe we’re getting married!’ I exclaimed.

Charlie had just popped the question over dinner and I had said ‘yes’ without any hesitation.

Despite only meeting five months earlier, we were madly in love and I knew he was the one. We didn’t see any point in waiting around.

Cuddling in bed the next morning, we started to discuss potential wedding dates. ‘I just want to marry you as soon as possible,’ my man gushed. ‘Let’s phone around and see if we can make it happen,’ I suggested.

As luck would have it, there’d been a cancellation at our favourite hotel and we could get wed in five weeks!

Our first job was to meet with a celebrant to register our intention to marry. ‘Have either of you been married before?’ she asked. ‘This is a first for both of us,’ I beamed, clutching Charlie’s hand.

We decided to keep our day a small affair and only invited a few close friends and family. ‘Are you sure it’s not too soon?’ my mum asked me gently. But I’d never been more sure about anything.

With the dress bought and the reception booked, we were ready to proceed.

On the morning of the wedding, I was in the hotel room doing my make-up when I heard a knock. Thinking it was Mum, I opened the door to see a gorgeous woman with glossy brown hair. ‘Can I help you?’ I asked. ‘You must be Aimee. We need to talk, can I come in?’ she said to me. ‘I’m Kate, Charlie’s wife.’ ‘What do you mean?’ I cried in shock. She sat me down and went into the full story.

Charlie and Kate had been married for five years and had split 18 months ago. Although separated, they were legally still married. ‘A mutual friend of mine and Charlie’s told me about your wedding this morning,’ she explained. ‘I don’t understand why Charlie has lied to you, but I thought you should know.’ I sobbed as the news sunk in, not only could we not get hitched, but Charlie had deceived me all this time. Did I even know him?

Thanking Kate for telling me the truth, I went back into the room and picked up my mobile phone. Punching out a message to Mum, I really didn’t know what to say. The wedding’s off, I wrote. I don’t want to get married after all. Please can you let everyone know?

I couldn’t face the humiliation of what had really happened, so I hoped that my fib about having cold feet would be enough. Almost immediately my phone buzzed with calls and messages, but I couldn’t bear to speak to anyone. I didn’t even tell Charlie. He definitely didn’t deserve an explanation.

We were due to go to Bali the next day on honeymoon, so I checked into a hotel near the airport.Turning off my phone, I spent all day crying in bed.

Later, I switched on my phone to hundreds of messages from Charlie. Never contact me again, I wrote to him, before messaging Mum to say that I was going on holiday.

I’ve never told anyone the real reason I called off the wedding and I plan to keep it that way. I’m just grateful Kate told me the truth. If it wasn’t for her, I’d now be living a lie.