Amid a flood of gags on social media this week for April Fools’ Day, actor Anya Taylor-Joy has shared an almighty dupe of her own.

Taylor-Joy, most recently seen in Dune: Part Two, revealed she got married a year earlier than previously thought.

Taylor-Joy’s luxurious October 2023 wedding to musician Malcolm McRae in Venice was heavily publicised thanks to the popular location, paparazzi shots and a guest list of more than 150 friends and family who weren’t shy about posting pictures online.

But on Monday (US time), Taylor-Joy revealed she and McRae had actually enjoyed a more private celebration more than a year earlier.

“Two years ago, on April Fools’, I secretly married my best friend in New Orleans,” she captioned images of the special day on Instagram.

“The magic of that day is ingrained in every cell of my being, forever. Happy second (first) anniversary my love … you’re the coolest.”

Taylor-Joy and McRae each shared images and videos of their first wedding, which they credited to model and actor Cara Delevingne and celebrity photographer Sebastián Faena.

“I love you now and somehow I always have and somehow it will never end,” McRae wrote in his post.

For the 2022 New Orleans event, Taylor-Joy wore the same Dior gown she donned for the Venice celebrations more than a year later. At the time she wrote it was “beautifully embroidered with our love story”.

Dessert consisted of cakes designed to look like anatomically-correct hearts in pools of blood.

The couple opted for unusual wedding cakes. Photo: Instagram/@anyataylorjoy

“Yes, I am the vampire Lestat,” Taylor-Joy wrote.

While she and McRae had kept their wedding secret until this week, there were unconfirmed reports in 2022 that they had wed in a courthouse ceremony that year before Taylor-Joy flew to Australia to film Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.

Relationship timeline

Taylor-Joy and McRae have kept largely quiet about their relationship and it’s not known how the pair met or when they began dating.

But McRae, a member of the band more*, later revealed he wrote the song Really Want to See You Again just two days after meeting Taylor-Joy.

The actor publicly mentioned her beau for the first time in April 2021.

“My partner’s just come back from work, and he’s moving around all of his equipment, so this was the safe spot,” she said in an interview with Elle.

They were pictured kissing in public the following month, and have since hit red carpets together and discussed each other more openly.

Taylor-Joy wore the same Dior gown to both of her weddings; here, she is pictured in Venice. Photo: Instagram/@cinemalover1983 

In 2022, Taylor-Joy told British Vogue that McRae was her “hobby” – rather than reading, which she felt she had to do.

“He loved it because he’s the same. I’ve finally found someone who will happily sit in silence with me reading,” she said.

“We’re basically 80 years old and seven at the same time and it works really well.”

While she said having a long-distance relationship due to the demands of their careers was hard, it also meant the couple valued their time together even more.

“Everyday mundane activities are so full of joy. I love going to the petrol station with him and filling up the car and going to get breakfast,” Taylor-Joy said.

Fun fact: McRae, 29, is two years older than Taylor-Joy, 27, but they share an April 16 birthday.