The strange love story of a woman who married the Eiffel Tower

Love makes people do crazy things. Some quit their jobs to follow a partner across the world, others write songs, start wars, or spend their life savings on grand romantic gestures, just to make their partner happy.

But Erika LaBrie? She went a step further and married a 1,083-foot iron tower in Paris.

A woman looked at the Eiffel Tower, a structure made of 7,300 tons of metal, built in 1889, and visited by millions of tourists every year, and thought, “That’s my soulmate.” 

And she didn’t just have a crush. She legally changed her name to Erika Eiffel, committed to it in a commitment ceremony, and has been devoted to the tower for over two decades.

Many people would dismiss this as pure insanity, and I wouldn’t blame them. But let’s be clear: Erika isn’t delusional. She’s part of a small but very real community of people who experience objectum sexuality (OS)—a deep romantic and sometimes sexual attraction to inanimate objects. 

For her, the Eiffel Tower isn’t just a landmark. It’s her partner, her confidant, her husband.

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How does someone fall in love with a building?

Erika’s story begins long before she ever set foot in Paris. As a child, she felt drawn to objects in a way others couldn’t understand. 

She formed emotional bonds with things most people saw as lifeless—cars, fences, even a pinball machine. But it wasn’t until she visited Paris in 2004 that she experienced true love at first sight.

Standing beneath the Eiffel Tower, she was overwhelmed. The way the iron beams stretched into the sky, the way the lights sparkled at night—it wasn’t just admiration. It was devotion. She later described the moment as “a magnetic pull,” like the tower was speaking to her.

Most of us would snap a selfie and move on. Erika, however, started visiting the tower daily, talking to it, touching it, and eventually, declaring her love publicly. She even “married” the tower in a commitment ceremony, wearing a white dress and exchanging vows. Though obviously, the tower didn’t respond.

How does this work?”

Okay, let’s address the elephant in the room. No, Erika doesn’t believe the Eiffel Tower is sentient. She knows it’s metal and bolts. But for her, the emotional connection is as real as any human relationship. She describes feeling “seen” by the tower in a way people never made her feel.

Objectum sexuality is rare, but it’s not new. There are documented cases of people forming deep romantic bonds with bridges, roller coasters, and even the Berlin Wall. 

Psychologists are still figuring out whether some brains are wired differently or just an extreme case of humans projecting emotions onto lifeless things. 

Either way, for those who experience it, they claim the love is undeniably real.

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The backlash

Unsurprisingly, Erika’s marriage made headlines, and not in a good way. Tabloids mocked her, tourists gawked, and French officials were not thrilled about someone claiming matrimony with their national monument. 

But Erika didn’t care. She stood by her love, even as others called it a publicity stunt or mental illness.

What’s fascinating is how consistent her devotion has been. She didn’t just marry the tower for attention and move on. She’s spent years advocating for OS rights, giving interviews, and even appearing in documentaries. 

She’s built a life around this unusual love.

Plot twist: There was another love

Just when you thought this story couldn’t get more surprising, it did. 

What if we told you that in later years, Erika found herself a new love? Apparently, the Eiffel Tower wasn’t her only love. The new object of her affection? A fence.

After years of commitment to one of the world’s most iconic structures, she developed feelings for what most of us would barely notice.

Why? Only Erika knows.

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