Wedding dress for sale to pay for divorce

A woman selling her wedding dress on eBay says she will use the cash to fund her divorce, after her husband left her and moved in with another woman.

Samantha Wragg, of Chesterfield, says she is "mainly selling as I need to pay for my divorce which my ex-husband has left me to foot the bill for".

Ms Wragg says she added her story to her advert on the online auction site after initially not receiving any bids.

The Art Couture dress has now attracted bids in excess of £13,000.

Ms Wragg, who is 28, says her parents bought her the size six dress for "around £2,000" in 2014. She first put it up on eBay for £500 on 11 August.

She describes it on the listing as being in "great condition but needs dry cleaning before wearing to get rid of the stench of betrayal", adding that she did not have time to have it cleaned before her husband "decided to call an end to our marriage".

She added: "I'll also throw in my veil (yes, that's right - I went all out princess on the day!)."

She goes on to apologise for only posting two photographs of the dress on the advert, but says that "when I found out my husband was living with another woman, I pretty much burned/permanently deleted everything with his disgusting face on it!"

She added: "If you want a dress that is full of bad memories and shattered hopes and dreams then this is the one for you! Hope this dress brings you a lot more happiness than it brought me in the end and if not...well you can always sell it on here!"

Ms Wragg, who says she works in social media, also runs a lifestyle and fashion blog.

After her story was picked up by the media, she wrote a blog post about her reasons for selling the dress. In it, she says her husband left the relationship in January.

She wrote: "I had my wedding dress on eBay for two weeks with barely any views so I decided with a little help from my brother (ok it was all his idea!) to make it funny.

"A lot of people have got the wrong end of the stick and think it's really bitter but anyone who knows me knows I've got a great sense of humour and it's very tongue in cheek."

She goes on to say that she "literally can't count the amount of messages I've had on eBay from both men and women wishing me all the best with everything".

Two of those messages, she says, have been marriage proposals. But they are falling on deaf ears, because Ms Wragg has recently posted on Instagram about a man she is now dating.

And despite the tone of her online advert, Ms Wragg says she does not bear her ex any ill will.

"I wish my ex-husband all the best with everything. Yes, he made a terrible and really hurtful mistake but he's got to live with that (and without me!) for the rest of his life.

"I forgive him and I'm very happy now so I hope he is too."