An Aussie woman who married a bridge celebrates her 8th wedding anniversary this year.
Jodi Rose, from Sydney, fell in love with Le Pont du Diable, also known as ‘The Devil’s Bridge’, when she was travelling through southern France in 2013.
She fell head over heels for the 14th-century structure, Jodi, who is now known as Mrs Pont du Diable, married the bridge in an intimate ceremony in front of 14 guests, and the mayor of the neighbouring town, Saint-Jean-de-Fos.
Eight years after their wedding, Jodi has spoken out about object personification synaesthesia, the disorder that caused her to associate objects with personalities, genders, and even feelings.
Eventually, it was the object disorder that made her fell in love with the stone bridge, which wears a custom-made giant ring to signify it’s marriage to Jodi.
“I was really quite nervous before the wedding,” Jodi told Channel 7. “I felt like a bride and it felt really, really beautiful and exciting.”
“He’s very handsome, strong, and sturdy,” Jodi said. “I felt that he is someone I can connect with and who I feel will give me some grounding.”
Jodi wants everyone to know that there’s ‘someone’ out there for them.
“There’s someone out there for everyone,” Jodi added. “Or some bridges, chandeliers, pool floats. Something for everyone. There’s no limit to love and the way you can feel experience, and express love.”
Prior to her bizarre wedding, Jodi wrote on her blog that while the bridge may not outwardly express feelings to her, the Pont du Diable is something she feels connected with.
“The Devil’s Bridge is everything I could desire in a husband, he gives me a safe haven and lets me follow my own path, without trying to keep me tied down,” Jodi wrote in her 2013 blog post. “I am devoted to him, though he understands I love other bridges and men.”
“Our love is one that embraces life, materialized in the swirling river that flows before his magnificent body.”
Unfortunately for Jodi, her marriage to ‘The Devil’s Bridge’ is not legally recognized but she regularly returns to France to visit her lover.
Jodi is yet to disclose whether she and her stone lover are yet to consummate their marriage sexually.
While Jodi’s marriage might seem strange, sexologist and object personification expert Dr Amy Marsh said that the disorder is more common than you might think.
“Many people have a very robust, rich, complex relationship with an object or maybe even a number of objects,” Marsh told Channel 7. “Object personification synaesthesia is where you can sense personality in objects. And while it might seem alien and strange to us, the feelings are very real for the person who has that going on.”