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John Whitbread

You can join this jilted man on his would-be honeymoon

When it comes to vacations, John Whitbread is all in.

 

Miles Klee

Internet Culture

Posted on Jan 5, 2015   Updated on May 29, 2021, 8:35 pm CDT

You can’t get a refund on romance, but after dropping a couple grand on a Caribbean honeymoon only to see his wedding plans crumble, 32-year-old John Whitbread hopes eBay can help him make the best of a sad situation.

“I was gutted when she said she didn’t want to get married,” said the U.K. resident of Amy, his long-term girlfriend, in comments to the Telegraph, “but I realized I couldn’t mope forever and I didn’t want what I’d already paid to the holiday to go to waste.” Hence #girlfromthepublictodominicanrepublic, a hashtag campaign through which the brick plant worker is seeking another female companion for his two-week, all-expenses-paid vacation at a four-star resort in the Dominican Republic.

His eBay listing for the ticket, then, doubles as something of a dating profile. He lists his height and build, noting that he’s “not boring … otherwise I wouldn’t be doing something as ridiculous as this.” He boasts “sharp moves on that dance floor” and the lack of a criminal record, “although sometimes I should be locked away for my snoring.”

Bidding had climbed as high as £1,020 before the auction had to be reset for technical reasons, and so Whitbread is promising to donate any money raised beyond the £1,050 mark to a testicular cancer charity. “Everyone’s saying I’ve got balls to do this,” he remarked in a YouTube post this morning, “and I think that seems pretty appropriate.”  

As of this writing, Whitbread has attracted 30 bids, the latest standing at £710 (approximately $1,080). Sounds like he’s found himself a few kindred spirits—or some scuba divers, anyway.

H/T The Telegraph | Photo via John Whitbread/YouTube

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*First Published: Jan 5, 2015, 1:15 pm CST