Kate Lawler fell backwards off a chair during her brother’s wedding reception in Portugal after standing up to encourage guests to take their seats. The 46-year-old later posted the clip on Instagram and turned the slip into a joke, writing: “This is why I shouldn't drink alcohol.”
Instagram and the chair fall
The footage shows her bouncing slightly on the chair before losing her balance and crashing backwards onto the floor. Family members rushed over to help her back to her feet, then she climbed onto the chair again with her dad standing behind her so she did not take another tumble.
That sequence matters because it shows the fall was not a one-off pratfall caught at the edge of the room; it happened in the middle of the reception, in front of wedding guests, and then became the clip she chose to share herself. Lawler has built a public voice that mixes TV visibility with blunt self-awareness, so a private embarrassment turned into a social post that people could react to immediately.
Kimberley Walsh and Anna Williamson
Kimberley Walsh replied “Bloody brilliant,” while Anna Williamson added “Pahahahahahaha iconic.” Those reactions kept the post moving beyond a family anecdote and into a small social-media exchange built around Lawler’s own joke.
Lawler then followed the clip with a second update, saying: “Gosh, I'm a broken woman” and adding, “In the words of Ian Beale... 'I've got nothing left'. Three days of drinking, partying, dancing, shouting, eating, and not sleeping... I'm done. I'm done in.” The line draws the sharper read on the weekend: she turned the embarrassment into a laugh, but also made clear she was physically and emotionally spent afterward.
Portugal and the aftermath
The wedding was her brother’s, and Lawler travelled to Portugal as one of the bridesmaids wearing a figure-hugging dress for the occasion. She said she had spent six years convincing Martin to become a parent in another context, but here the point is simpler: she was not a bystander watching someone else’s mishap, she was part of the family event and the clip came from inside it.
The open question is how badly, if at all, she was hurt when she hit the floor. What is clear is that the fall ended with her upright again, her dad positioned behind her, and Lawler heading home in a car with a face mask on after a weekend she has already reduced to a punchline.
