Tangled love life of the woman who 'married' the Eiffel Tower - but was swept off her feet by a crane
They call Paris the ‘City of Love’ and this American woman was so smitten she fell head over heels in love – with the Eiffel Tower.
In fact, Erika Eiffel, went one step further. The former Air Force pilot and archer decided to marry, and take the name of, the world famous 1,083-foot-high landmark, reports the Sun.
Proud ‘objectophile’ Erika – who was called LaBrie before she became married – took part in an intimate ceremony with the hit French tourist attraction with close friends in 2007.
Erika, 54, who is attracted sexually to inanimate objects, explained why of all objects it was the 137-year-old wrought iron engineering masterpiece she decided to commit to: “Her structure is just amazing. She’s got subtle, subtle curves.”
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What is 'objectophilia'?
The condition, also known as objectum sexuality, was first used to describe Eija-Riitta Berliner-Mauer, who was married to the now largely destroyed Berlin Wall. In 2022, LADbible reported on the case of Sarah Rodo, then 23, who revealed how she was in love with a plane.
Originally from San Francisco, Erika described how she felt the first stirrings of love for the mighty tower: “It’s almost like I heard her crying out, saying, ‘somebody, notice me. Somebody, really notice me’.
“And then here I am in the crowd crying back, ‘hear my voice’.”
However, the Eiffel Tower was not the first object Erika was attracted to. She recalled as a teenager while her friends started dating their peers, she harboured feelings for the Golden Gate Bridge.
Which objects first captured Erika's heart?
Her previous relationships include a Japanese training sword, which she said saved her from being sexually assaulted by another cadet in 1993 while she was in the US Air Force Academy.
Later, she became obsessed with archery and fell in love with her bow, Lance, who was such an excellent companion, together they ‘shot’ to stardom when Erika became a world champion archer.
She won three National Cup tournaments in 2003, then she joined Team USA, appearing in the 42nd World Target Championship in New York.
By 2004 and again in 2006, Erika was a member of the US National Archery Team and in 2009 she was on the senior National Team for the elite Olympic recurve.
For all her dedication to Lance – and their shared sporting glory – it was her relationship with the Eiffel Tower that threw her into the limelight like never before.
Once the marriage went viral over the internet, Erika became the poster-girl for objectophilia worldwide.
How did fame affect Erika Eiffel?
She would go on to star in documentaries including the British-made, Married to the Eiffel Tower (2008), she appeared as a commentator on The Man Who Married the Lincoln Memorial, and she featured in the TLC and National Geographic broadcast series Strange Love (2015).
Writer Sophie Jaff helped put together a Chicago musical called Erika’s Wall based on Erika’s life. The objective was to: “challenge a wide and diverse audience to explore the difficult aspects of love and ‘otherness'”.
Would Erika Eiffels's marriage last?
However captivating the Eiffel Tower may be - in a scene that foreshadowed how the relationship was sadly not to last - she was filmed straddling a red fence.
She described her feelings while taking part in a documentary: “I did not expect to find a fence like this here at all,” she said.
“He’s perfect, I mean this is the shape that I like so much. These angles? Fabulous.”
She then changed jobs, becoming a crane operator and confessed in an interview with VICE in 2015 that “It took me a very long time to accept that maybe it’s OK to start another relationship.
“I thought I’d never fall in love again. But being a tower crane operator, no one can question or bar me from getting to know this object. I feel like the buildings we’re creating together are almost like children.”
Michael D. Carroll