Bride defended after uncle walks her down the aisle instead of stepfather

A bride has been defended after asking her uncle to walk her down the aisle instead of her stepfather.

In a recent post shared on the popular Reddit forum “Am I The I**hole?”, the mother of the bride shared that she welcomed her daughter, who she referred to as Sarah, when she was in college. She acknowledged that the late husband and father of her daughter sadly passed away “due to a heart complication,” which happened after Sarah’s second birthday.

After confessing that her late husband’s death was a “very tough time” for her, she shared that four years later she met her now second husband, whom she referred to as Robert, on a blind date. She then explained the close relationship he had with his daughter over the years.

“Even when we were dating, he was very involved with my daughter, and it wasn’t long before my daughter called him ‘Daddy,’” the mother wrote. “Even until we got married and when I got pregnant two years after we were married and gave birth to twins, he still acted like a father to Sarah.”

However, he explained that things changed when Sarah turned 18, noting that she began calling Robert by his first name, something that both he and his wife were “puzzled by.” When the couple asked Sarah about the change in attitude, she described overhearing Robert’s conversation about taking a Father’s Day trip to a lodge owned by his friend.

“His friend asked him if he forgot to include Sarah since my husband only asked him to prepare three rooms. My husband replied that he had planned this trip only for his actual children. It wouldn’t make sense for Sarah to be on the trip since he wasn’t their real father,” the Reddit user continued. “This made Sarah feel betrayed and hurt because she saw him as her real father even if she knew he was her stepfather.”

Sarah’s stepfather “tried to explain to her that although he loved her as a father, his love for the twins was different as they were his real children.” However, she told him and her mother to leave the room. The mother explained that while Sarah now “acts like nothing happened,” she still calls her stepfather by his first name when he visits their home.

She shared that since it's been a few years since the incident, her daughter recently announced her engagement. Weeks before the wedding, the mother assumed that Robert would be the one to walk Sarach down the aisle, which ultimately wasn't the case.

“My daughter made fun of me when I told her that Robert had walked her down the aisle. She said, ‘I thought it was obvious that Uncle Greg (my late husband’s brother) would be the one to do that. Plus, I’m not his real daughter. It wouldn’t make sense for him to walk me down the aisle,’” the mother explained.

The Reddit user noted that she later apologized to her daughter for her “ignorance” before telling her husband the news, as he also assumed he would walk Sarah down the aisle. However, when Robert found out what Sarah said, he became “angry.”

“But I politely reminded him of the incident years ago, which upset him even more,” the mother added, referring to the conversation she had about Sarah being his stepdaughter. “He said it had been a long time and that Sarah should move on.”

The bride's mother came to Sarah's defense, telling her husband that he “shouldn't be upset since he doesn't see her as his real daughter anyway,” prompting him to “cry and [tell her] Although he attended the wedding, where he “looked visibly dejected,” the situation has affected his relationship with his wife.

“We still don’t get along and we’ve been pretending in front of the family,” she concluded. “It’s been a week since my daughter’s wedding and Robert is still upset. He only talks to me about the twins and things around the house, but beyond that, he keeps everything to himself.”

The post quickly went viral on Reddit, with over 16,000 upvotes. In the comments, several people defended the bride's decision to have her uncle walk her down the aisle, while criticizing Robert's comments about Sarah being just his stepdaughter.

“Robert brought this on himself. He acted like her father since she was two years old, so he’s the only father she’s ever been aware of. Yet he called her a “non-real” daughter and was careless and cruel enough to do so when she heard him. Of course, the consequence of that petty attitude is that she doesn’t consider him her father. He created this situation,” one person wrote. “Now he continues to be immature and cruel by punishing you for stating the reality of the situation.”

“She saw him as her real father, but he didn't see her as his real daughter. He doesn't get to decide when she is his daughter and when she isn't,” another agreed.

“Robert is learning – or perhaps more accurately – suffering the consequences imposed on him, that some bells cannot be undone,” replied a third. “He can’t turn back time and he has no wings. There’s nothing he can do and he just needs to accept it.”