Not every story here ends in a wedding. Some end in divorce, with everything that implies once one of the two people involved is a foreigner — property split across two legal systems, custody questions, a visa that no longer applies. Here we gather stories about relationships that didn't make it, and how the people in them dealt with what came after.
A British engineer married Knock, a woman from a respectable Bangkok family, and for eleven years she was the perfect wife. Once they moved to the UK on a spouse visa that cost two years and a fortune, everything changed: total control of the money, a women's shelter, a custody battle, and an ending he never saw coming.
A 62-year-old retired American recounts how he met Dada at a Pattaya massage shop, married her in a Buddhist ceremony in Isan, and everything fell apart when she started quietly withdrawing money from the joint account he'd opened for the dowry.
A 50-year-old Australian recounts how a 350-guest Thai wedding in Phuket turned into a guest house in Patong, an affair with another woman, bar fights involving the police, and a final message asking for a divorce.
A Canadian sailor has been married nine years to a woman from Pattaya and has three kids. Now he faces the hardest question of his life: stay or leave.