Man Slammed Online for Breaking 'Bro Code' by Marrying Brother's Ex

Sibling relationships can be hard to navigate at the best of times, but one brother's actions have been criticized online after he fathered a child with his brother's recent ex-girlfriend, and then asked him to be the best man at their wedding.

A 21-year-old man took to Reddit to share his upset after finding out his 30-year-old brother is set to marry his ex-girlfriend. The man dated his ex-girlfriend from age 15 for three years until she broke up with him "completely out of the blue" over text.

"Three months later she announces she's pregnant to the world, father a mystery. Six months later my brother proposed to her after their first daughter was born," he wrote in the post to Subreddit "True Off My Chest." It has gained over 18,000 upvotes.

The couple had a quick courthouse wedding with just his father and her sister present, before he then got stationed in Japan.

"Now, they just came back and announced they're having another official wedding. My brother came to my place yesterday and told me he's sorry for how things happened but he was ready to let bygones be bygones for the sake of the family, that our father and his side of the family expect a big wedding and he wanted me to be his best man," he detailed online.

The 21-year-old then told his brother that he would not be attending the wedding and is now instead planning a vacation at the same time, "so I'll be on another continent on the date he told me."

Strained relationships with siblings isn't uncommon, though admittedly not quite to the extreme of this particular case. Cornell University professor Karl Pillemer estimated to Reader's Digest that less than five percent of siblings are completely estranged from one another, but a recent poll by NOW TV found that 17 percent of adult siblings admitted to feeling a sense of rivalry with their sibling in every stage of their life.

Siblings' rivalries or families bickering might be common and easy to forgive for most, but this betrayal by the brother was one that many felt couldn't be passed—along with the uncomfortable age gap between the new couple.

"Your brother has the audacity to play being generous when he was no less than a backstabber. He and your dad can both kick rocks," wrote one user.

"It always amuses me when the person in the wrong wants to let bygones be bygones without really considering how the other person is coping or processing the issue. Enjoy yourself, you deserve happiness," noted another.

"How you gonna break bro code with your literal brother, what an a**hole," shared a Reddit user.

Others even suggested still attending the wedding, just to add their own personal touch on the big day. "Poster is nicer than I would've been. F**k their wedding, I'd be the best man just to bring up at the reception all the bulls**t they pulled," wrote a user.