I’m a gypsy wife & even married women aren’t allowed to mix with men at parties, I’d never approach my husband at a bash
A GYPSY wife has raised eyebrows by sharing some of the strictest rules in her culture about men and women mixing socially.
Charlotte Ann announced in December that she’d tied the knot with her long-term on-off boyfriend, who she originally fell in love with at the tender age of 16.
She’s since been opening up about life as a married gypsy on her social media pages, and reflected on the amount of “non-travelling women” she’s heard saying they want to “marry a gypsy or traveller man”.
In a video on her TikTok page, she said while she’s aware there’s “innocence behind” the throwaway remarks, such women don’t seem to realise what comes hand in hand with being a gypsy wife.
“I think they think that we just sit around eating grapes all day, ordering Louis Vuitton handbags online,” she sighed.
Charlotte went on to explain that it’s actually a case of “very traditional values” – the women stay at home and “cook and clean” all day while the men go to work.
“Gypsy woman have a lot of responsibilities – it’s not as simple as just sitting around all day doing nothing,” she sighed.
She went on to explain some of the other rules that people outside of the culture would find “strange” and hard to keep up with.
Using a wedding as an example, Charlotte said that she’d be sitting with the rest of the women at one table, and all the men would be sitting at another table.
“You won’t be sitting with your husband – he’ll be over with the men and I will not walk over to that table to my husband with all them men,” she insisted.
“I’d die with the shame. I would die with the shame!”
Charlotte then went on to once again point out the responsibilities she has as a traveller wife, as she said her husband could tell her they’re “pulling out today” and she would have to have the entire trailer ready to go in 20 minutes flat.
“I think some non-traveller woman think that the men be hand-feeding us grapes while pouring £50 notes over her heads and it’s really not like that at all,” she said.
“We have very traditional roles.
“It’s a very old-fashioned way of being brought up and it is very strict.”
Charlotte also pre-empted comments from trolls as she insisted that the “men have a lot of responsibility as well”.
“So yeah it’s not as fun as you think it is,” she concluded.
“I have friends that are travellers and the girls tell me it’s a very hard life for girls,” one person commented on the video.
Facts on gypsy and traveller communities
Typically, gypsies is a term used to describe Romani people who migrated to Europe from India while traveller refers to a person with either Irish, Scottish or English heritage.
Around 300,000 Gypsy, Roma and Irish travellers are thought to live in the UK.
All three groups come from nomadic ways of life, however, as it is increasingly difficult to find land to live on, many are moving into permanent housing.
They place high value on family life and often live close together even after reaching adult years and getting married.
Often the men are the breadwinners of the family while the women stay home.
While many English gypsy girls are allowed to drink alcohol and go on holiday with their friends before they get married, their Irish counterparts are not.
As another insisted it “sounds like a life of slavery”.
“As a man it’s not slavery,” someone else hit back.
“My wife chooses to clean all day – she’s not made to.
“I can take a day off work for no reason but I chose not to, just like she chooses.
“It’s ingrained in us not to be lazy.”
“So you couldn’t bring your husband a drink while he was conversing?” someone else asked.
“Or would he have to get up and meet you halfway?”
“Women don’t go to the bar at parties, men do,” Charlotte replied.
“Women will go to the bar only with other women at the bar with them, but 9 times out of 10 the man goes to it and gets the drinks.”
“Country girl here married to traveller man and I agree with every word lol,” another commented.
“I found it so strange to get used to some of these when we first got together but I married a good man.”
“Yes it can be a culture shock,” Charlotte replied.