The Time a Man Married a Hologram (And Other Unions That Make You Question Everything)

In 2018, a 35-year-old Japanese man named Akihiko Kondo married Hatsune Miku. You may know Miku as a virtual pop star—a holographic singing software program with an unsettling voice and an impossible figure. Kondo wore a tuxedo. There were guests. He spent roughly $18,000 on the affair. When asked about his new bride's performance anxiety, he explained that she had none because, technically, she cannot perform at all. They are doing great.

This is where it gets weird, so stay with me. Kondo reports that his marriage has improved his mental health significantly. He receives occasional social pushback—mostly sideways glances at the grocery store—but he's unfazed. As of last report, he remains married to Miku and has purchased a customized ring for her, which he wears on a chain around his neck. The hologram does not wear jewelry.

Now, before you assume Japan has cornered the market on unexpected unions, allow me to introduce you to a Louisiana woman who married the Eiffel Tower. Her name is objectum sexuality, and no—that's not a person. That's her condition. She's attracted to inanimate objects. She's also married a fence and wore white for both ceremonies. The Eiffel Tower wedding included a change of name: she is now Erika La Tour Eiffel. When asked how she knew it was the one, she reportedly felt a "spiritual connection" while standing beneath it. The tower did not comment.

But here's the thing that keeps me awake: none of this is technically illegal in most places because marriage law is genuinely fuzzy about what constitutes a valid partner. You need a license, sure. You need witnesses, sure. But a marriage to a non-sentient thing? It exists in a legal gray zone the size of Nebraska. Some jurisdictions have had to explicitly add language clarifying that your spouse should be, you know, an actual person. Others haven't bothered.

The Japanese government doesn't recognize Kondo's hologram marriage. It's ceremonial. But that hasn't stopped him from treating it as real, and honestly, who are we to judge a man's commitment to a program that will never age, never argue about bills, and never leave him for someone more interesting.

Love, it seems, has always been a battlefield. Now it's just a surprisingly well-documented one.

**This Week in Weird History:** In 1901, a Kansas woman tried to divorce her husband by mail because he was "too quiet," and the court said yes.