MARRY in haste, repent at leisure. Never has there been a more public reaffirmation of the old proverb. Greg Cordell and Carla Germaine have announced their decision to split up less than three months after they wed. The disintegration of their marriage was inevitable.

They were brought together not by love but by a local radio station. Broadcasters at BRMB in Birmingham decided to treat marriage as a contest. It was one which only produced losers.

In a squalid but effective publicity stunt, station bosses launched a competition to find a bride and groom. Greg and Carla were eventually selected, and were introduced to one another on the day they married.

For their co-operation, they were given a Bahamas honeymoon, and the use of a luxury flat and car for a year. They have now forfeited these comforts along with their marriage.

With breathtaking hypocrisy, the couple have blamed the media for the break up. This, from two people who chose to marry by media. From a pair so desperate for attention that they were prepared to get hitched to see their faces on television.

Greg and Carla complain the press were intruding into their private life. But they elected to make it public in the first place, even agreeing to star in a television documentary about their concocted marriage.

Having courted public interest, the couple wanted to shut it off at their convenience. As they have discovered, that is simply not possible.

Greg and Carla may be indulging in cant by blaming the media for the end of their marriage, but that does exempt elements of our industry from blame. The whole fiasco was brought about by radio station bosses who were willing to manipulate ordinary people for their own ends. BRMB reduced the sanctity of marriage to the level of a cheap advertising promotion. And the broadcasters must take responsibility for the result: two very unhappy people whose lives are a mess.

If this tawdry episode proves anything, it is that marriage is hard work. Most successful unions are built on love and friendship which has developed long before the wedding day.

Greg and Carla now have many years to repent their failed marriage. But it is hard to feel sympathy for two people who had so little respect for their wedding vows.

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