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21st Sep 2021

Groom’s autistic brother leaves 170 wedding guests in tears with best man speech

Danny Jones

Literally in bits within seconds

A brother’s best man speech has gone viral on TikTok after leaving 170 wedding guests and millions of online viewers in utter tears.

Sam Waldron has autism and when he was asked to give the best man speech at his brother Jonah’s wedding, he was understandably nervous to take on such an important task and huge honour.

Sam, 23, starts the speech by joking that he was “terrified”, explaining how his “autism can make [him] terribly scared to interacting with people, let alone give a speech in front of 170 of them for Pete’s sake”.

Regardless, the brave younger brother soldiers on, stepping up to bat and knocking it out of the park – not to mention leaving everyone in floods of tears throughout.

@scoutrueandfamWe are so lucky to have you in our lives Sam! ❤️ ##wedding ##weddingtiktok ##bestman ##bestmanspeech♬ original sound – Waldron Fam

Beyond his obvious admiration and gratitude for his 27-year-old brother – who is keeping it together much more than we are – Sam’s words about the bride, Maddy, are particularly touching.

It is clear that his high opinion of the bride matches that of his big brother, describing how she “lights up” his other siblings, how their mother “adores” her and how he has never felt nervous or uncomfortable around her as he has with others.

He even goes on to say: “You give me peace, you bring peace to all of those around you. I love you, Maddy”. All cried out? Think again, here’s part two.

@scoutrueandfamPart 2 ##bestman ##weddingtiktok ##wedding♬ original sound – Waldron Fam

The second act is less rough on the old heartstrings, as he pulls out all of the classic best man roasting material: “You never rapped in front of the whole school at a pep rally, I did”; “you were never voted Homecoming King, I was”, and so on. Absolute baller.

Nevertheless, he rounds things up with an old school Irish toast and receives a standing ovation with overwhelming applause – and rightly so.

More than five minutes of pure courage, empowerment and, above all else, love. It’s had over 6.3 million views on the platform and it’s not hard to see why. Congratulations, Sam and Maddy – we wish you all the best in your life as one big family – and, of course, well played Sam: A.K.A. the most handsome Waldron.

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