{"id":2066,"date":"2013-03-11T16:56:05","date_gmt":"2013-03-11T16:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/p=?2066"},"modified":"2013-03-11T16:56:05","modified_gmt":"2013-03-11T16:56:05","slug":"boy-8-marries-woman-61-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/gb\/news\/boy-8-marries-woman-61-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Boy, 8, marries woman, 61 in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the world's most bizarre weddings has taken place in South Africa, where an eight-year-old boy has tied the knot with a 61-year-old woman.<\/p>\n<p>Sanele Masilela is even thought to have come up with the idea to get hitched with his much older partner, Helen Shabangu.<\/p>\n<p>Mrs Shabangu already has five children and a husband, but as the ceremony was just a ritual she has not broken the country's polygamy laws.<\/p>\n<p>The wedding is believed to have occurred at the instruction of ancestors who wanted the little boy to find a wife.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I'm married and have five kids of my own, but I know that this is what the ancestors wanted and now they're happy. It is a ritual. We are just playing now,&quot; Ms Shabangu stated.<\/p>\n<p>Sanele added that he still hopes he will one day tie the knot officially with a girl closer to his own age.<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"ADNFCR-2867-ID-801554521-ADNFCR\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.directnews.co.uk\/feedtrack\/justcopyright.gif?feedid=2867&amp;itemid=801554521\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa has hosted a wedding with a 53-year age difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Boy, 8, marries woman, 61 in South Africa - Forces Penpals GB<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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