Man Backed For Refusing To Pay for Sister's Wedding

A 34-year-old brother of three sisters has taken to Mumsnet to ask for advice on a tricky family situation.

In the post user maxaten explains he has three sisters aged 35, 27, and 29. Since their father died 17 years ago, he explains, he has taken on a fatherly role, specifically paying for the younger sisters' weddings and walking them down the aisle.

Despite allegedly saying she never wanted to get married, the older sister recently announced that she is getting hitched, having already picked the date and booked the venue and caterers.

"She is expecting me to reimburse her the costs," he writes.

Some 88 percent of people on Mumsnet have decided that he is not being unreasonable, with one user commenting, "I think you need to remind her that you're not her father and that, as the oldest, she didn't pay for the younger two's weddings (or yours) and maybe should have if she wanted this to be a reciprocal thing, so hasn't a leg to stand on here."

He explains that he and his wife live abroad and are expecting twins and had held off telling the family due to the risk of any complications.

He goes on to say that "Given that she would be heavily pregnant by the date of the wedding I do not want to be halfway across the word in a different country from her. Also due to the many upcoming expense we are expecting I will also not be able to afford to pay for [the sister's] wedding."

They agreed to tell his sister about the pregnancy in the hopes that she would understand his reasons for not being able to financially help. However, she "did not take it well, saying that he is being unfair and is playing favorites."

"She says I should have planned better by telling everyone sooner about the pregnancy and that I should have had money set aside for her wedding because they can't afford the wedding themselves and she probably won't be able to get her deposits back.

"She also says that since my wife's due date isn't for another month after the wedding that it shouldn't even be an issue. She is now saying she will cut me off if I don't treat her equally as our other sisters and come to the wedding as well as pay for it."

Money is often regarded as one of the most contentious topics of conversation between friends and family, and a Wells Fargo study from 2014 found that is actually harden to talk about than death.

The study found that the most difficult topic to discuss was personal finances (44 percent), with death (38 percent), politics (35 percent), taxes (21 percent) and health (20 percent) following close behind.

The brother explains in a later post that none of the siblings received any inheritance, and he spent approximately £15,000 on the weddings of the other two siblings.

While users sympathized with the brothers situation, some argued it was not fair on the third sibling. "If you paid for the other weddings, you're unreasonable not to pay for (or at least contribute to) this one. Do you think your father would have wanted that?" said one user.

Another commented: "Her demanding that you pay is very distasteful. But I'm sure I'd feel pretty second class to you if you'd paid for two full weddings for the others but not given her anything. I actually find it weird that you even paid for the other 2... but that was your choice, you set the scene."

One user offered this advice: "Don't go, but try to make some financial contribution. She can keep the venue and cut her guest list to save on costs. And if she was counting on funding from you, she really should have checked before putting down deposits."

Newsweek was not able to verify the details of the case.