'Men marry the woman in front of them': The dating theory that has TikTok in a tizzy

A theory about why men marry the women they do, and when they decide to, has left the internet in a frenzy.

In a TikTok video has been watched almost three million times, Taylor Herd shares the theory she "hasn't been able to get out of [her] mind" since she heard it.

"Men marry the woman in front of them at the time they are ready to get married," she explains.

Herd says she came across a TikTok account run by a photographer who had clearly been to many weddings and observed the men were only getting married to the women 'in front of them', implying it wasn't necessarily their soulmate or the love of their life.

Watch the video above.

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"It was just the girl he was dating at the time he was ready to get married and settle," she explains.

"When a man decides that he is financially and emotionally ready for marriage, he takes a different approach [to dating].

"The part of his brain that's like, 'Oh, there's another girl out there' shuts off, because now his focus is marriage, it's not finding the next best thing."

Many TikTok users were shocked to hear the theory, leaving all sorts of comments and opinions. 

"Yes and the woman who checks the boxes of what his family, religion, circle expect of him. He will reject the girl he loves if she doesn't fit that," one wrote.

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Another said her ex-boyfriend was proof of the theory, writing, "[He] literally married the next girl he dated after I ended things. I asked why and he said he's going to be 30 soon."

One man took a stance against the idea, saying, "I refuse. I will never marry a woman that I don't know is the one. I won't even date a woman if my heart is with another."

Others argued the behaviour isn't unique to men.

"Kim K said she married Kris just because she was 30 and all her friends were getting married," one person wrote, referencing Kim Kardashian and her first husband Kris Humphries.

This user took the theory as an opportunity to say thanks, saying, "Thank you for reminding me why I'll never get married."

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One commenter even said it's simply a man deciding he needs someone to care for him: "When he decides he's ready to marry or when he realises he's getting older and needs someone to take care of him."