Social media star says whirlwind teen marriage cost her $300,000 in divorce fees

Connor McCroryFri, July 10, 2026 at 5:57 AM UTC

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Social media star Madelynn May spent over $300k in lawyer fees -Credit:Instagram

A social media content creator says a marriage that began as an act of revenge ended up costing her roughly $300,000 when the couple divorced after about a year.

Madelynn May, 22, of Nevada, said the relationship started when she was a teenager, following a painful breakup, and that she married her ex-boyfriend's best friend just weeks after they began dating.

"I was dating his best friend first," she said. "He cheated on me, so I cheated on him with his best friend – and then I married him." May, who has more than 709,000 followers on Instagram, said the pair wed when she was 18.

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"We got engaged at 18 and then got married two weeks later," she said. "There was no logic behind it – my pea-brained 18-year-old self thought it was a good idea."

The newlyweds had little money at the time and were living in her parents' basement in Georgia, she said.

"We had no money," she said. "We were on food stamps and living with my parents because we couldn't afford anything else. If we had anything, it was because our families gave it to us."

May said she was working as a dancer, earning as much as $1,500 a shift, but acknowledged she was not thinking about the future.

May said she was working as a dancer, earning as much as $1,500 a shift -Credit:Instagram

"I was making money, but I was 18 and just spending it on nonsense," she said. "I wasn't saving anything – I just wasn't responsible."

When clubs closed during the coronavirus pandemic, she moved her work online.

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"I started my OnlyFans in December 2020," she said. "It took a few months to get going, but then one of my TikToks went viral and everything changed."

Her earnings soon reached about $10,000 in a single month and continued to climb, she said.

"After that, my income just kept growing every month," she said.

The sudden financial turnaround strained the young marriage, according to May, who said her circumstances shifted almost overnight.

The sudden financial turnaround strained the young marriage -Credit:Instagram

"Everything changed really fast," she said. "My whole life flipped in a short amount of time."

The couple separated soon afterward, and the timing of her success proved costly.

"We got divorced after I made a lot of money that year," she said. "And in the state I was in, if you make money while you're married, you have to give a percentage to your spouse. I think it was around 30%."

Because her income had surged so quickly, the settlement was significant.

"I made all this money in such a short space of time – and then had to give a big chunk of it away," she said. "I basically had to pay him one year of my salary. It ended up being around $300,000."

May said she now regards the marriage as an expensive lesson.

"I was young, I made a lot of impulsive decisions, and that was one of them," she said. "That mistake cost me $300,000."

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”