Love Prevails As Man Marries His Bride Who Became Paralyzed A Month Before Their Wedding

Apr 03, 2023 by apost team

Like any excited bride, Rachelle Friedman was anticipating her wedding to her first love, Chris Chapman, following a year-long engagement and over five years of dating. But a freak accident during her bachelorette party quickly altered her future as she learned she would likely not be able to walk again.

A month before her wedding in 2010, Friedman was getting ready to say goodbye to the single life and went night swimming with her bridesmaids in Virginia Beach. Her best friend since childhood playfully pushed her by the pool, as they've done to each other a million times before, but Friedman slipped and fell in the water with her head first.

Friedman, then a dance and aerobics instructor at senior homes, recalled that she could not move as she floated above the water while her girlfriends frantically called 9-1-1. She was rushed to a hospital where doctors saw her C6 spinal cord injury and confirmed the bad news: she was paralyzed. 

According to the Shepherd Center, C6 spinal cord injuries can cause paralysis of the hands, legs and trunk. Recovering from this condition depends on the severity of the injury and factors like the person's motivation, frequency and intensity of rehabilitation, and pre-existing health conditions. 

Friedman’s wedding to Chapman that June didn't happen. Instead, she was in rehabilitation for almost three months. Despite facing a long road to recovery and piles of medical bills, Chapman never left her side. He took her home to North Carolina from the hospital in August of that year.

More than a year after her accident, the couple made their dream wedding happen in July 2011. Friedman’s father pushed her in a wheelchair down the aisle, and her best friend from the accident was there too.

In July 2021, the couple decided to renew their wedding vows for their 10th wedding anniversary, as witnessed by a small group of guests and Kaylee, their only child who was born via surrogate in 2015. Chapman admitted that the public attention to their wedding affected him, especially after reading a lot of negative comments online. However, his love and commitment to his wife never changed.

"Life has been tough, but the marriage hasn't," Chapman told Today. "That's what's held us together." 

Friedman revealed that while Chapman stayed despite the public predicting he would walk out on her, she did lose some of the people in her life. Although she fiercely protected her best friend's identity from a public backlash, they eventually had a falling out.

"In the beginning, she was there for me and I was there for her," Friedman told People in 2016. "She was distraught and depressed about what happened. But as the years passed, she didn't make the effort." 

Since hitting the headlines after her accident, Friedman has been documenting her life online because she believes her purpose in life is to help remove the stigma against people with disability. She often shares photos of her activities with her husband and daughter to change people's perceptions about those in wheelchairs. 

The mom is also aware of the judgments she gets online about choosing to have a baby via surrogacy when she can't take care of herself a 100%. Friedman said that she keeps posting photos of her family to quell any misconceptions that people with disabilities demand more from their able-bodied carers. On the contrary, she told Today that her marriage is a “totally equal relationship,” and there are many ways her husband needs her help as well. 

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Rachelle Friedman made headlines as the paralyzed bride whose husband was labeled a saint by the public. What do you think of their relationship? Do you know someone who can relate to this story? Then tell them all about it!