A bizarre marriage mix-up in Sichuan, China, has finally been resolved after 27 years. A man who tried to register his marriage earlier this year was shocked to learn he had already been “married” since 1998 — to a woman he never officially wed.
According to Chinese media, Mr. Liu and his fiancée Ms. Li went to the Civil Affairs Bureau in Xuanhan County, Sichuan, in May to register their marriage. However, officials informed him that the system showed he had already registered a marriage with a woman surnamed Yu back in April 1998.
In disbelief, Liu insisted, “That’s impossible! Yu and I broke up decades ago — we never even got a marriage certificate!”
The Civil Affairs Bureau, recognizing the seriousness of the situation, referred the case to the local prosecutor’s office for investigation. Prosecutors began by retrieving the decades-old marriage file, where they found several red flags: the “applicant’s signature and fingerprint” section was blank, and the space meant for a couple’s ID photo was also empty.
Further checks using police databases revealed that while Liu’s ID number was valid, Yu’s was a fake — it didn’t exist in the national system.
Investigators then traced the case back to 1998. Through interviews with Liu and his relatives, they pieced together what had happened. During that time, Liu had brought his then-girlfriend Yu home for the Lunar New Year before they both went off to work elsewhere and later broke up.
However, Liu’s father, worried about his son’s chances of marrying in the future due to the family’s financial situation, secretly asked a friend — a local marriage registrar surnamed Wang — to “help” register the marriage on paper. Out of personal favor, Wang illegally processed the registration without either Liu or Yu present, fabricating the documents entirely.
This “well-intentioned” deception by Liu’s father left his son unknowingly recorded as married for nearly three decades.
After confirming the fraud, the Xuanhan County Procuratorate ruled that the 1998 marriage registration was invalid and should be legally annulled. The Civil Affairs Bureau accepted the recommendation and has since officially canceled the false marriage record, restoring Liu’s marital status to “single.”
When handed the official Marriage Revocation Certificate, Liu was visibly emotional. “For over 20 years, I’ve been carrying the label of a man ‘already married.’ Now, that burden is finally lifted — it feels like a huge weight off my chest.”
